Ascension From Darkness: Forgive and Forget
by LadyDae
Summary: When Anakin convinces Ahsoka to visit his family after a five year absence, he's worried how his children will react to their relationship. All may be forgiven but is not forgotten and darkness again looms upon the Skywalker family again...
1. Part One

**AN:** Okay People. I said when I finished his story, I would post it and since I'm done writing arc two of Light of Liberty (though it's not posted), I thought I'd go ahead and put it up. This turned out to be longer than I anticipated. What was supposed to be a simple family orientated five part fic turned into a more complicated eleven part fic… Anyway. I hope you like it.

Read, Enjoy, and Review…

**Wait a minute… Note that this is not a standalone fic and if you haven't read my Dark Ahsoka series you need to go do so.**

Alright. Now Read, Enjoy, and Review!

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

**Part One**

"Admiral Piett. How long before the Enchantress arrives in the Yavin System?"

"Approximately two hours sir," the Admiral said to his new commander Anakin Skywalker… Well he wasn't necessarily new to the ship. He had been on it for five years now, but he was certainly new compared to his co-commander.

"Can't this thing go any faster?" Anakin asked frustrated.

"We're going at top speed sir or at least as fast as we can go to get to Yavin safely," Piett added.

"For you all that is. Let me navigate," Anakin started to go up to the controls.

"Now now love. Patience is a virtue," a voice sang from behind him. "Let the men do their jobs."

"You try being patient when you haven't seen your children, or grandchildren for that matter, in five years. You'd be impatient too Ahsoka," Anakin said beginning to pace.

"Oh I know all about patience," Ahsoka reminded rolling her eyes.

"As I recall you're a very impatient person," Anakin said with a smirk.

Ahsoka's lekku turned a shade of red in embarrassment as she felt his meaning through the force. "Let's not forget I waited nearly thirty years."

"Point," Anakin gave.

"Two hours isn't that long," Ahsoka said starting to walk away from the bridge and into the lift. Anakin followed her. "Especially when you're occupied…"

As the lift doors closed, Anakin looked at her in contemplation for a moment and then shook his head.

"I'm too nervous to do anything else," he said starting to pace in the lift.

Ahsoka raised her eyebrow. "You must be sick. Not even to do that?"

"Yes," Anakin said in a serious tone. "Not even _that_."

"Wow… You really are nervous Skyguy," Ahsoka said dryly. "Why? Luke and Leia aren't going to be mad again. It's not like you disappeared and they didn't know where you were or if you even existed. They knew where you were. They knew you were okay. They won't resent you for taking a long deserved vacation."

Anakin stopped pacing as the lift stopped. He and Ahsoka headed into the hall.

"That's not what I'm nervous about," he said. "It's you I'm nervous about."

Ahsoka stopped walking. "Me?"

"Yeah," Anakin said and then noticing the flare in her presence he added. "Cool down Pesinoé. I mean how they're going to react to us."

"I still don't get it," Ahsoka said calming down a little. Anakin only called her by her former sith name when she slipped back into the other personality and that was usually when she was angry or her pride had been wounded.

"I mean they know I was with you on the Enchantress exploring the Unknown Regions. But they don't know I'm _with_ you," Anakin said.

"So? What's the big deal?" Ahsoka asked smiling.

"I'm afraid of how they're going to react. They're going to be a little surprised… Really surprised," Anakin muttered.

"Why?"

Anakin sighed. "Let's just say that while Luke and Leia forgave you, they haven't necessarily forgotten."

Ahsoka winced. She knew that. She sensed it when they called her to find their dad five years ago. But surely they had gotten over it by then.

"You worry too much," Ahsoka said pulling him into her embrace and pecking him on the lips. "They wouldn't have wanted me to find you if they hadn't."

Anakin sighed. "They were desperate. Their dad was missing and having a serious brush with the dark side. I would have done the same thing."

"Milady."

"Yes," Ahsoka said not turning to look at the two women.

"All your things are packed and your ship is ready for takeoff as soon as we reach the Yavin system,"

"Very well," Ahsoka said to her remaining two Ladies in Waiting.

Anakin had asked about that as soon as he was on board the Enchantress, and Ahsoka said that the others were on Dathomir running a refugee home for abused women with the help of the witches of Dathomir. Anakin remembered them and the planet well. It was where Han had taken Leia when that mama's boy prince wanted to marry her. Anakin would never tell Han, but he was eternally grateful Han had essentially kidnapped his daughter. Leia had seriously been considering taking up on that prince's offer to marry her. That didn't stop Anakin from trying to kill Han for kidnapping his daughter though.

"It'll be fine. You'll see," Ahsoka assured.

Anakin sighed. Nothing was ever that simple when it came to Skywalkers.

xxxxxxxxxxxx

"This place is so beautiful," Leia said as she went through force exercises with Luke. "I never really got a chance to see it when the rebel base was here."

"Yeah it is," Luke replied. "I'm glad you came. You needed to get away from Coruscant."

"You're right. It's so peaceful here. I may not ever want to leave," Leia replied.

Luke laughed. "The Imperial Republic can do without its empress for a while. It won't kill them."

"If the senate can stop bickering like children… I'd take referring one of Jacen and Jaina's arguments any day compared to that," Leia replied and then sensed her brother's distraction. "What?"

Luke shrugged. "Nothing. Just thinking about dad. We haven't heard from him in a while."

Leia scoffed. A while was an understatement. It had been five years. But she wasn't at all angry about it. Her father needed some time away and at least he had the decency to call and tell them after a few days that he would be gone for a while, traveling the Unknown regions. That was a lot more than Ahsoka had done when she took off for seven years…

"At least we know he's fine," Leia said. Soon after he had told them where he was going, he opened back up their bond and the twins kept a watchful eye on him in the force. He seemed more content again.

"Ahsoka Amidala Skywalker Solo, get your little spoiled self back here!" they heard Han shout.

Leia sighed. "And there goes the moment."

Both she and Luke got up and headed back into the Praxeum. When they stepped into the hall, they narrowly missed being run over by a blonde blur with Han skidding around the corner. One of the lights fell from the ceiling, narrowly missing falling on Han's head.

Han swore a string of obscenities and Leia sighed as she reached out with the force and stayed her daughter in place. It was a difficult feat though. Not only had the eight year old girl inherited her grandfather's looks, she also inherited his force talent. The girl had a knack for the force that not even Luke and Leia had at that age, and Luke was thrilled to have such a talented potential student. But the girl had one small problem.

Leia managed to get to the girl and grab her by the arm before the girl broke out of Leia's force hold and tried to run off again.

"Hold on a minute young lady," she said.

"Let me go," the girl snapped.

"Ami," Leia said to her. "What is it?"

"I was fixing the _Falcon _and I did something on it daddy didn't want me to do," Ami said glaring at her father. Ami was her nickname. Leia never wanted to put pressure on her daughter that she had something big to live up to being named after two very powerful women in the galaxy so Leia preferred to call her Ami. "I was only trying to fix it."

"I had already fixed it sweetheart," Han said exasperated. "Now you messed it up again."

"Only because you broke my concentration," the eight year old snapped. "The force was guiding me through it and you ruined it."

"Are you sure it was the force or was it your own desires?" Leia asked Ami softly. She expected the girl to sigh and admit yes, but Ami was never that relenting.

She snatched her arm out of her mother's grasp and screamed. "I can't stand you all. You treat me like I'm a child!"

"You are a child sweetie," Leia said trying to comfort Ami.

Ami rolled her eyes and stomped her foot. "Ugh!" With that, the girl took off down the hall in a force induced run down the hall before Leia could try to stop her again.

Luke, feeling Leia and Han's dismay in the force smiled sadly.

"Everyone has a problem child. She'll grow out of it soon."

Leia sighed as she went over to make sure Han was okay.

"I just don't know what to do with her anymore Luke," Leia replied. "I didn't expect any of the attitude and anger issues until she was a teenager and hormones were going all over the place. I just don't know what do," she said with tears in her eyes. "I've tried everything, even taking time off and taking her out of school to go on vacations. Nothing's working."

"Hey," Han said embracing Leia. "It's okay. Don't get yourself sick over this. We'll figure it out."

"Have you tried asking her why she's so angry?" Luke asked.

Leia sighed. "It's no use. She won't tell me. She's so secretive…"

"Well, I guess that means we should blame all of this on Dad," Luke said jokingly. "She got it from him."

"Don't remind-." Leia stopped and blinked. Luke started to ask her what was wrong until he did the same thing. Han looked between them and shook his head.

"Alright. What's going on? You're both doing that freaky force twin thing again," he pointed out.

The twins ignored him and exchanged an excited look before they too dashed down the hall in a force induced run ignoring Han's shouts that if they were going to run to at least do it without the force so he could keep up with them.

The two dashed into the hanger and barreled into Anakin, just as he and Ahsoka stepped off the ramp of her shuttle.

"Dad," they both said hugging him.

"Hey kids," Anakin said smiling.

Ahsoka laughed. "You'd think you two were five years old with the way you all came running to see your father like that."

"We've been so worried about you," Leia said carefully when she pulled back.

"Yeah," Luke agree standing next to his sister. "Are you alright?"

Anakin exchanged a subtle glance with Ahsoka and smiled. "Yes son. I'm fine."

"That's great," Luke said. "Now come on. You've got to meet the new students and-."

"And I'm not here at all," Ahsoka said rolling her eyes. "I'm just the girl who found your dad after he went missing and took care of him for the last five years. But don't worry. I'm just peachy."

"Sorry Ahsoka," Luke said looking back at the woman with a grin.

"Nice to see you again," Leia said carefully as she looked back and for the between her father and Ahsoka. She hadn't missed the look they exchanged.

She decided to investigate later and went to her father's other side.

"Your students can wait Luke. Dad hasn't met Ani yet," Leia said.

Anakin looked at her. "Ani?"

Leia smiled. "Yes. Anakin, my fourth child."

Anakin then remembered that Leia had been pregnant when he left. He stared at his daughter fondly.

"You named him after me?" he asked surprised.

"Why not?" Leia asked. "Mother had a namesake, two actually. So should you."

"Yeah, but that was only because she was so mad at Mara and Luke at the time so they decided to pacify her," Anakin pointed out.

"It wasn't," Luke defended and then added when Anakin and Leia gave him a knowing look, "Maybe partially."

The four headed to the suite in the temple that Luke had fixed up especially for his sister's family. They met Han along the way who was just getting to the hanger after Luke and Leia left him behind. He briefly stopped in surprise at seeing the Skywalker patriarch and asked what he'd missed. Leia rolled her eyes and grabbed his arm guiding him to their suite.

"Hey kids," Han yelled. "Come on out here. There's someone we want you to meet."

But Jacen and Jaina were already running out the back room.

"Grandpa!" they yelled and jumped into Anakin's waiting arms.

"You're back," Jaina said kissing him on the cheek.

"So you still remember me?" he asked and they nodded eagerly as he sat them down.

"Grandpa," the youngest Solo said bounding around the corner. "I thought you said-."

Anakin stopped and looked up at his grandfather in awe. "You're a giant!"

Anakin laughed and bent down to tussle the boy's hair. "Hey there little guy."

"Are you really my grandpa?" the boy asked to be sure.

"Yes son," Anakin replied and without hesitation the boy hugged him.

"I've always wanted to meet you. Jacen and Jaina said you were really fun and you always brought them presents. Did you bring us any presents?"

"Anakin," Leia said with a soft laugh.

"They're in the luggage," Ahsoka said to the boy who looked up at her and then backed away shyly.

"Who are you?"

"She's a friend too," Han said to him. "Harmless except for certain dark tend-."

Leia hit Han on the arm to cut him off. Luke gave Ahsoka an apologetic look, and Ahsoka started to say it was fine but the door bust open and in raced strawberry blonde girl with an Artoo unit following closely behind her.

"Grandpa," she said throwing her arms around him. "I missed you."

"I missed you too Mé," Anakin said to the child and then Artoo rammed into his leg. Anakin chuckled. "You too buddy."

"Miss Mé," Threepio said walking into the room. "You do run so fast. Next time remember that I can't go as fast as you and Artoo do. We protocol droids aren't-. Well oh my stars. It's the maker."

"Hello Threepio," Anakin said.

Luke turned to Mé. "Where's your mother?"

"Right here and I brought this little spoiled child with me. If you ask me Leia, I'd…" Mara trailed off when she noticed who was in the room as she guided Ami in.

Ami, who had her arms crossed and was scowling, looked up, eyes landing on her grandfather.

"Grandpa!" she yelled and pushed everyone out the way as she jumped up and latched her arms around his neck. Her presence brightened immensely, not unnoticed by Leia who was concerned with her daughter's anger issue.

"Hey little one," Anakin said as Ami held on to him like she didn't want to let go.

She laid her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes. "Why were you gone so long? I missed you."

Anakin felt her sadness and grief through the force. He hadn't felt that kind of grief from anyone since he felt it in Padmé when they decided to separate the twins when they were born. He didn't know it would affect his oldest grandchild so much.

"So this is where everyone went," Mara said as she greeted Anakin as much as she was going to. They still didn't get on well. "A true family reunion."

"No it's not," Ami said letting go of Anakin and running to her room, coming back with a worn necklace in her hands. Everyone saw it was the japor snippet Anakin had given Padmé when they were children.

"Now it is," she said putting the pendant around her neck and looking at it fondly.

Leia looked at her daughter in silent amazement. It was times like these that made her forget that Ami was having problems and made Leia want to help her even more, whatever the problem was. She could be such a sweet and thoughtful child. Leia had never met a child more selfless. She was always willing to give a helping hand, but was prone to anger.

Ami then looked up, having detected another presence in the room standing next to the wall by herself. She took one look at the Torgruta woman and ran to her.

"Ahsoka!" she said.

"Hello young lady," Ahsoka said uncharacteristically shy, not unnoticed by her lover. Ami beamed and Ahsoka smiled. "You remember me?"

"Of course," Ami said and Ahsoka sensed that this girl was much more mature than her eight years. "I told you I'd never forget you. We have the same name."

Ahsoka sensed the bond when she looked the girl in the eye five years ago and it was back again. There was something about this girl…

"Well now that we've all gotten reacquainted," Leia said as she looked at Ahsoka and Ami, a little jealous that where Ami always seemed a little hostile towards everyone including her mother, there was no hostility for the former sith lady anywhere in her. "Let's have dinner."

"I'll tell the cooks to whip up a special feast for the whole Praxeum," Luke added

xxxxxxxxxxxx

So what do you think? This is just the set up. Obviously Ami plays a major role in this, but the adults do too. I loved writing it. In other news, I turned in my Star Wars essay. Please send your wishful thinking out into the universe so I can get an A. My presentation wasn't as bad as I thought. It went fine and I'm glad I got it out the way. More than half the class still has to do theirs because they wanted to wait. So I said, I'll get this over with.

Anywho, there's a lot more of this story to come so give me that motivation to post another chapter (wink, wink). Hope you enjoyed. Review Please!


	2. Part Two

**AN: **My sister who began an avid fan of this series practically begged me to update and since I love to torture my little sister, I almost said I was going to wait to put this up just for kick and the sadistic pleasure I get from it. However, it's not just my sister reading and she has you guys on her side so I decided to go ahead and update…

But I've only got two finals in school and then I'm done! Yay me! So while I get ready to plan my "No-School-For-A-Month Party", you all read, enjoy, and review!

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

**Part Two**

When Luke showed Anakin and Ahsoka to their rooms which was across the hall from each other, Anakin waited for Luke to leave before crossing over to Ahsoka's room. She was sitting quietly in the room absently putting her things away. Anakin was sure she hadn't noticed him come in. She was really distracted. So when he came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist, she jumped and then relaxed when she noticed his presence.

"Oh. It's you," Ahsoka said smiling. "I'm just a little distracted is all."

"A little?" Anakin asked. "You've never been this distracted before, from the time you were my padawan to now."

Ahsoka sighed. "Just a lot on my mind."

Anakin sat on the bed and pulled Ahsoka into his lap as she wrapped her arms around him.

"What is it?" he asked. "You've been quiet all day. That's not like you."

Ahsoka was silent for a moment and then said, "I shouldn't have come here with you. I shouldn't be here."

"What are you talking about," Anakin asked.

"This is like being in the Jedi temple and I feel like a real hypocrite right now," she muttered. "I killed all the Jedi in the first place. I shouldn't have come to the place where Luke is trying to rebuild them. I need to leave."

"You're not going anywhere," Anakin said kissing her. "You're not a Sith anymore. Why does that still bother you? You feel sorry for it, and it's in the past now."

"But what does the rest of the galaxy think? What did they think when Leia named me a hero of the galaxy in her coronation?" Ahsoka asked.

"You were there?" Anakin asked. Then he remembered that Luke had long ago admitted that Ahsoka had been on Coruscant for a while right after she disappeared, checking to make sure they would be alright.

Ahsoka sighed and started to pull away but Anakin didn't let her go.

"You listen to me," Anakin said determined. "No one's judging you here. No one has that right. Now I love you and it doesn't matter what anyone says if I can forgive you because you hurt me most of all, and I don't care. Therefore, you're welcome here,"

Ahsoka smiled. "Thank you Sky Guy," she said affectionately.

"No problem Snips," he said kissing her and then pulling away to look at her. He started to kiss her again. The door opened in the middle of their kiss and they pulled back, but not in time for the person at the door not to see what had happened.

Ami looked at them in surprise starting to close the door and Ahsoka stood up to begin to explain, but Leia came in behind Ami and pushed the door open.

"Time for dinner," Leia said and then trailed off some as she sensed tension and nervous embarrassment in the room. She looked at Ami and then between Anakin and Ahsoka. "What's going on?"

Anakin and Ahsoka were silent staring at Ami. Leia looked at Ami.

"What is it honey?" she asked.

Ami looked at Anakin and then Ahsoka before shaking her head and saying, "Nothing mother. I just tripped coming in is all."

With that Ami left the room and Leia stared after her before crossing her arms and looking at the two.

"What's going on?" she demanded.

Anakin smiled. "Nothing Leia. Just talking," he said walking past her.

Ahsoka followed behind him and sent to him, _Talking?_

_It wasn't a blatant lie. We were just doing a different kind of talking._

_Anakin…_

_I promise, we'll tell them after dinner, but not around the children,_ Anakin replied.

Leia stared after her former master and her father as they left. They weren't telling something and she was going to find out what it was.

Everyone was already sitting at one long table when Leia got back there. She sat next to Han and Ami ran to where Anakin and Ahsoka were sitting. A look passed between Ami and Ahsoka before Ahsoka scooted over so the young girl could sit in between them. As soon as she sat down, Ami happily grabbed a piece of bread and began chatting away with Anakin and Ahsoka. Leia looked at them in jealousy. Ami had never done that with her and Han. In fact, she sat as far away from them as she could.

"So," Leia said to Anakin and Ahsoka. "What been going on in the last five years?"

They both shrugged and Ahsoka said, "Nothing much. Exploring the unknown regions…"

_That's something else we have to mention to them, _Ahsoka said.

_Not now. This is a happy moment. We'll deal with that later,_ Anakin replied.

"So what did you guys find there?" Han asked. "Heard it's a pretty dangerous place to navigate."

"Only because no one has mapped it out yet, but it's easy enough for a force user," Anakin replied.

"No kidding," Han replied.

"We're working on trying to map it out and see exactly how far the galaxy spans," Ahsoka explained.

"That's pretty dangerous even for a force user," Mara pointed out.

"It sounds exciting," Ami said eager to hear more.

"You cause enough excitement around here little one," Leia pointed out and Ami rolled her eyes.

"It's not my fault no one around here understands me," she muttered.

Ahsoka looked at Anakin and then at Ami. Anakin shrugged. He too was concerned about the resentment and discontent he felt in the eight year old and intended to ask Leia about it later. Leia caught the silent exchange again and crossed her arms. If their quick secret glances kept up, she'd be fed up by the end of dinner and when the end of dinner came, she was.

Her father and the former Sith lady were acting odd around each other and if she didn't know any better, she'd say they were acting rather… romantic, well her father anyway. Leia wasn't sure if this was out of character for Ahsoka of if she just hadn't lost her flirtatious, teasing nature from being Pesinoé. Not only that, but she sensed something different between the two, something like the relationship her father used to have with their mother. If that wasn't enough, Ami seemed to be looking between the two with a knowing nervous expression.

The children began to get up and leave the table, leaving the adults, and just as Ami came back, about to ask Anakin something, Leia having grown impatient blurted out, "Is there something you and Ahsoka want to tell us?"

Everyone turned to stare at her, even Ami who suddenly looked like she had when Leia came behind her into Ahsoka's room. Leia didn't care though. She was glaring at her father and Ahsoka.

"Why do you ask princess?" Ahsoka asked in a tone that reminded Leia of her Sith self.

Leia rolled her eyes. "Come on. You're trying to be so subtle, you're making it obvious there's something. I'm not the only one who notices."

Ahsoka felt the curiosity of everyone else at the table and knew Leia was right.

"Can it just wait until we're back in your suite?" Anakin asked Leia knowing the answer.

"No," Leia declared stubbornly. "I want to know what's going on. I hate when you hide things from us."

"Leia," Ahsoka said.

Ami started to slowly walk away but Leia called her back.

"Ami come back here," she said and Ami slowly turned around, an annoyed look on her face.

"What?" she snapped.

"Tell me why you were staring at them when I came in the room earlier," Leia asked softly hoping that it would win her daughter over. It didn't.

Ami rolled her eyes. "I told you. I tripped."

Anakin looked at Ami. She was a very intuitive little girl and seemed to sense that whatever it was that had happened between Anakin and Ahsoka would only be controversial to the family. She seemed like she was purposely trying to be difficult with her mother, but according to what Anakin was feeling, she was trying to keep the peace and was very aware and upset about lying to her mother. Still, there was a bit of a hostile edge to it, like Ami didn't want to talk to her mother to begin with even though she was trying not to upset her.

"It's alright Ami," Anakin said soothing her through the force. "Go ahead and tell her."

Ami gave them both an uncertain look then looked at everyone at the table shuffling uncomfortably before muttering. "Grandpa was kissing Ahsoka."

"What do you mean sweetheart?" Han asked carefully.

Ami sighed. "You know. Like a husband wife type thing…" Ami looked at her grandfather and Ahsoka again before saying, "But they aren't married or anything so more like lovers I guess."

Leia had no idea that Ami knew what a lover was, but at the time she didn't care. She crossed her arms and suddenly felt like she was twenty-one years old again and finding out her parents were alive. But she didn't know how to feel about this.

"Maybe we should talk about this in your suite," Mara suggested noticing the other students that were still lingering about. This was bound to get ugly. Leia had her father's temperament and this was the equivalent to Anakin finding her and Luke locked in a room making out when they barely knew each other for Leia.

"No, we can talk about this now." Leia snapped.

"Civilly," Luke said quietly though he too was trying to keep his temper under wraps.

Ami quietly stood behind her grandfather as the tension at the table heightened.

"So what was it you were going to tell us?" Han asked breaking the tense silence.

Ahsoka sighed and looked at Anakin who sighed but Leia butted in first.

"What's there to tell? It's pretty obvious now," she said. "How long has it been dad? How long have you been in a relationship with her?"

Ahsoka straightened up a little when Leia referred to her with sudden obvious disdain.

"A while now," Anakin admitted.

"Father," Luke said from across the table.

Mara and Han exchanged a look. Luke and Leia had only gotten closer throughout the years even though most of the time they weren't even on the same planet. Therefore, though it was obvious they were close, no one ever saw the real power of the Skywalker twins. Even as adults with their own children they were quick to defend each other. So though Luke wasn't as upset as Leia was, Leia's mood just rolled over onto him making him act similarly to her in a much calmer way. It scared the hell out of the senate when Leia grew tired of their bickering and her brother happened to be there…

"Since you sent me to find him five years ago," Ahsoka replied quietly, very unlike herself.

"What?" Leia said surprised and then angry again.

Luke looked sharply at his father. "Dad is this true?"

"Yes son," Anakin replied. "We were planning to tell you earlier but we were in the unknown regions for so long…"

"Tell us this then," Luke said glaring at his father. "When you called to tell us you would be going with Ahsoka for a while about a week after we sent Ahsoka after you, had it started by then?"

Anakin cursed in huttese in his head at the fact that he had such intuitive demanding children, unknowingly projecting it to Ahsoka who curled her lips in a smirk despite the situation. No doubt they had gotten it from their mother.

Anakin's guilty silence was all they needed to know and Luke sighed rubbing his head with his prosthetic hand. Leia on the other hand said coldly, "And you deliberately hide something from us again. I at least thought we'd have the right to know you were with someone else, especially when it's her."

Ahsoka looked up sharply to respond in a way that was like her former Sith self, but two things happened. Anakin, sensing her anger through the force, grabbed her hand and Leia stood up from the table in a huff. Luke, Han, and Mara sighed chasing after the empress.

"I knew it," Anakin muttered.

"It didn't go nearly as bad as it could have if you ask me. Although I have a feeling Leia was trying to insult me," Ahsoka said tapping her nails.

"Calm down Pesinoé," Anakin said and any other time Ahsoka would have laughed except the situation was no laughing matter.

"Grandpa."

Anakin and Ahsoka turned around to see Ami still standing behind them quietly. Anakin pulled her over to him and put an arm around her.

"You shouldn't have had to see that," he said to her.

To his surprise Ami shrugged and said, "Can you do some force exercises with me?"

"Not now princess," Anakin said standing up. "I have to go talk to your mother and uncle," he finished but then decided to continue when he felt her disappointment, "I'll do some things with you tomorrow, but until then, maybe Ahsoka can help you."

Ahsoka looked at Anakin in surprise. "Maybe she'd just better wait for you."

"Nonsense," Anakin replied with a grin. "You trained Leia."

"And we all remember how that turned out," Ahsoka said with a grimace.

"At first," Anakin said smiling as he pecked Ahsoka on the lips. "You two have a good time."

As Anakin walked off Ahsoka turned to look at Ami, who was looking at her curiously.

"Well?" Ami finally asked.

Ahsoka stood up and help out her hand to the girl who grabbed it.

"Come on Amidala. Let's see how much you know."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Luke sighed as he closed the door to Han and Leia's suite. There was no getting through to his sister when she got angry. No wonder Pesinoé almost turned her to the dark side so easily.

"Leia's not in the mood to talk, is she?" Anakin asked from the other end of the hall.

"You think?" Luke asked with a sarcastic undertone.

"You don't sound mad," Anakin pointed out.

Luke paused before saying, "I was initially, but I kind of expected it. I think Leia might have too."

"Then why…?"

"Well first you didn't tell us," Luke reminded and Anakin winced at his sharp tone. "And then… Leia's having a hard time doing the forget part of forgive and forget. I think she blames Ahsoka for mother's death in a way."

"Leia's being illogical. Ahsoka's a completely different person than Pesinoé was," Anakin started, but Luke cut him off.

"Are you sure dad?" Luke asked.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I've been thinking about it," said Luke as he started to walk down the hall with Anakin. "And well… Yeah the dark side was all Pesinoé, but personality wise Ahsoka's not too different from Pesinoé. I mean sure she denounced the dark side and she doesn't actively use it, but she's still got a little darkness in her that influences her personality even though she's not evil per say."

"Yeah, you're right. She's been working on it though. She not nearly as inclined to envy and jealousy anymore and she's lost some of her aggressiveness although I think that's always going to be a problem…"

"Well, the fact of the matter is she's never going to be the Ahsoka you knew before all this dad and I think the sooner you accept that, maybe Leia will get over all this."

"I already know that. She may not be a Sith but the influence of the dark side did change her for better and for worse…"

Luke looked at his father. There was something more to that…

"What's wrong?"

Anakin rolled his eyes. "It's nothing that concerns you Luke. Not yet anyway."

"What do you mean not yet?" Luke asked and then started guessing. "Are you and Ahsoka trying to have a baby or something?"

Anakin looked at him incredulously. "My two children are in their mid thirties and between them I have five grandshildren. What would I look like having a child, or wanting another child for that matter?"

"Just had to ask. People have done it despite all that," said Luke.

"Besides, I don't even know if torguta and humans can even reproduce together or at least I've never heard of it, not to mention Ahsoka isn't really the motherly type," Anakin pointed out.

"Mara wasn't either until she had Mé," Luke pointed out. "But if it's not that, then what is it?"

Anakin didn't say anything as he began walking ahead of Luke, and Luke began brainstorming to figure it out. "Wait Dad. Come on. Tell me. I won't tell anyone."

"Get it in the right order Luke," was Anakin's reply as he turned the corner.

"What order?" Luke asked confused. "Dad!"

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

**AN: **That thing about the breeding compatibility is actually a fact in the star wars universe. I looked it up on Wookieepedia and there's a list of species that are compatible with humans and the ones who aren't. All on the compatibility list are of _near-human_ species which is different from _humanoid_ species, which is where races like Togruta, Twi'lek, and Fallen etc… would fall into. They don't give whether it's possible or not, just that a case of it hasn't been heard (or written in canon Star Wars anyway) and therefore one can assume what they want. Since I want this to stick to canon facts somewhat, I had to bring that up in that ending scene. But of course, fanfiction has a lot of leeway and you can do whatever you want, but if I'm going to defy a fact or physical law (which I'm not in this case. Sorry!) I want to make sure people are aware that I know the fact to begin with.

Anyway, how's that for controversy huh? And it just got deeper and deeper as the story went and I was like "It wasn't supposed to be this big!" Whatever though. That's how the story wanted to be written, and since I'm just the writer, I had to comply with the direction the story wanted to go in. Oh well.

Hope you enjoyed. Review Please!


	3. Part Three

**AN: **I'm so happy. My charge came early so that means I can update again! Well, I could have used my sis' computer but it's not the same as using my own computer. I almost died from not using the computer and being able to type, especially because **Sanctioned by an Angel** is flowing out of my head like a river down a mountain. I went from 20k last Saturday to 40k today and it would have been more if I had been able to use my computer.

Anywho. I liked writing Ami more than I thought I would. I had a hard time with her though. I had to make her think a little older than an eight year old, but make her act eight years old. That was a problem because my eight year old sisters think like adults. They talk better than most adults in fact and have a lot more common sense than the average seven-year-olds so I had a hard time keeping Ami eight. Anyway, Read, enjoy, and review!

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

**Part Three**

Ahsoka stood with Ami out in the courtyard of the Praxeum and stared at the girl who was waiting expectantly for Ahsoka to do something. Ahsoka wasn't quite sure what to do. She had only trained one person, the girl's mother, and she had done that as Darth Pesinoé. She sure couldn't teach the girl like a Sith, but it had been so long since she had gone through her Jedi training and being that they were in the middle of the war and Anakin had been her master, it had been far from orthodox.

"What does your mother and uncle have you do?" Ahsoka asked her finally.

Ami scowled. "Boring stuff. Like meditating because they say I need to learn to be calm and have control and focus first."

"That's true."

"But I already have that stuff. I have control and focus and I am calm when I'm not bored," Ami pointed out. "That's why I haven't come to the Praxeum yet. Luke's classes are too boring for me. I already know everything he's teaching the children my age."

"Arrogance isn't the way of a Jedi Amidala," Ahsoka chided.

"But I'm not being arrogant. It's the truth," she said simply

"Do you know what arrogant means?" Ahsoka asked to be sure.

"I would have asked if I didn't," Ami snapped with her hands on her hips.

"No need for the attitude dear and take your hands off your hips. If you can do those things, why don't we see how much of it you have?" Ahsoka said looking around and spotting a rock about the size of a kick ball nearby. "Can you lift that rock?"

Ami looked at Ahsoka as though she was insulted before the rock lifted into the air with ease and made its way over to where they were standing. Ami then gently eased it down and turned back to Ahsoka.

"What else?" she asked.

Ahsoka frowned. "How about that log?"

Ami had no trouble bringing the log over to them and Ahsoka raised her eyebrows… There was something different about this little girl. She was doing these things with the skill of a Jedi Knight.

"Try that fallen tree that's wrapped up in that moss and vines. Don't disturb the other trees though," Ahsoka said and to her surprise, Ami looked at the tree not at all intimidated and outstretched her hands and cupped the as is grabbing hold of the tree. She lifted one hand up first and moved it over her other hand so that the tree was standing upright. Then she lifted it out the forest and into the air bringing it over to the courtyard. Ami gently set it out the edge of the courtyard and then turned to Ahsoka.

Ahsoka looked at the log in concealed shock.

"Who taught you how to do that?" she asked.

"No one. I just… I can feel the force almost like I can touch it and it hears me when I want to do something then guides me," Ami said to Ahsoka and then asked with fear in her tone, "That's not bad is it?"

Ahsoka shook her head. "I… No Amidala. Of course not. It's… It's wonderful. You've been blessed with a rare sensitivity to the force… Does it scare you?"

"Sometimes," Ami replied looking down. "My dad doesn't understand it and my mother doesn't understand. Like today… I didn't mean to make the chandelier fall. I just wanted my dad to leave me alone. It was an accident."

"Well, it appears you have control when you focus… It's when you're not focus and bored when you get out of hand isn't it?" Ahsoka asked.

Ami shrugged. "I guess

"Well then, how about we start you with meditating?"

Ami rolled her eyes. "It's boring."

"But it will help you learn to control yourself even when you're bored. Tell you what? Have you ever used a light saber?"

Ami crossed her arms. "Uncle Luke won't let me when I'm here. He says I'm too young and until I learn to control my anger, I can't use one."

Ahsoka rolled her eyes. The younglings in the old order were using light sabers at as young as four years old. Besides, Amidala didn't seem angry to her, just bored. It was like trying to teach a sixteen year old her multiplication facts when they were ready for calculus or something. Boredom became anger and mishandled energy. However, she did agree that there was something else that Ami wasn't telling. But for now, helping her with her force ability might take the edge off the anger.

"Well after we meditate, you'll use a light saber for the first time today."

"You're serious?" Ami asked skeptically.

"If you want to."

"Alright. Let's go meditate then," Ami said sitting down on the ground.

xxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Sweetheart really. Is this as big a deal as you're making it?" Han asked Leia.

"Yes it is!" Leia snapped from where she was sitting at the small table looking over paperwork.

Han sighed in exasperation. Leia had been in a funky mood since dinner and that had been three hours ago.

"Now I know I'm hardly one to be saying this to you, but you're acting like a child right now. I know you were close to your mom, but what's the problem with your dad and Ahsoka. There was always some kind of chemistry between them even when she was Pesinoé," Han replied.

"That's the point," Leia said abandoning her paperwork as she couldn't focus on it.

"I don't get it," Han replied.

Leia sighed and started to ignore her husband before she noticed something, or rather, the lack of something.

"Where's Ami?" she asked.

"Didn't she come back with the twins and Anakin?" Han asked.

Leia shook her head. "I don't sense her here."

"Well, you know Ami," Han muttered. "She's more than likely fine… Better yet, I know she's fine. She always could take care of herself. Got that from you."

Leia smiled and just as she was about to get up to find her daughter, she sensed two presences coming. One was Ami and the other was the last person in the galaxy she wanted to see.

Leia went to the door and heard the two voices coming down the hall long before she saw them.

"I think that was good try for someone who's never held a light saber," Ahsoka said, the smile evident in her tone.

"You think? It's not nearly as easy as my uncle makes it look," Ami replied.

"Your uncle has had years of practice, not to mention you're only eight."

"Don't remind me," Ami replied in a voice that made her sound a lot older that her eight years. "I hate being eight years old. I feel like I'm supposed to be older…"

"Older?" Ahsoka asked her as they turned the corner.

"I don't know," Ami said as she and Ahsoka rounded the corner coming into Leia's view. Ami stopped talking and Ahsoka looked up to see where the girl was looking.

Ami went up to her mother sighing, Ahsoka walking behind her.

"Hey mom," Ami said in a dry tone. Leia scowled. Ami could talk to Ahsoka like they were best friends but didn't want to be around her own mother.

"Where were you Ami? You were supposed to be back with the rest of your siblings. I was worried about you," Leia said stroking the girl's blond hair.

Ami stepped away from her mother's reach and then walked past her into the suite without another word. Leia started to go behind her, but Ahsoka stopped her.

"Leia wait," she said softly and the woman turned to Ahsoka with the same stubborn expression she had used thirteen years ago when Pesinoé was trying to make her a Sith apprentice.

"What?"

"It wasn't Amidala's fault," Ahsoka explained. "I got a little carried away trying to show her how to use a light saber. We lost track of time."

"Ami's not supposed use a light saber. She hasn't even begun her real training yet," Leia snapped.

"She told me as much. But you should see what she can do," Ahsoka said softly. "She's very gifted in the force and I think maybe-."

"I don't need your help to raise my child. I know exactly what she can do and I'll help her reach her potential when her time comes. Now if you'll excuse me," Leia said.

"But Leia wait!" Ahsoka said, but the younger woman slammed the door. Ahsoka clenched her jaw and had to refrain from doing something that would have been akin to her former Sith self (like kicking down the door and reminding Leia who she was talking to with a light saber at the girl's neck).

Instead she took a deep breath and went over some of the force techniques to calm her anger and turned to go back down the hall. She'd talk to Leia later when she calmed down. Meanwhile Leia had followed Ami to her room.

The girl was taking out clothing to wear to bed along with a towel and washcloth so she could take a bath before doing so. Leia looked at how calm the girl was acting and times like these she forgot the girl was eight years old. Other than her attitude and anger problem, Ami wasn't a troublesome child. She was fiercely independent and took care of herself most of the time.

"Ami," Leia said sitting next to the child. "I could have done some force exercises with you. You didn't have to go to Ahsoka."

"I didn't. I went to grandpa, but he wanted to check on you so he asked Ahsoka," Ami replied and then smiled. "I like her. She's nice."

Leia sighed and sat on Ami's bed.

"Listen Ami, I don't want you around Ahsoka by yourself okay?" she said to the girl.

Ami stopped what she was doing and looked at her mother, blue eyes becoming cold and dark.

"Why?" she asked.

"There's a lot about her you don't know sweetie. Dangerous things that I'm not sure she's gotten control over yet. I don't want you to be around her just in case you say or do something that triggers it," Leia explained.

Ami groaned and rolled her eyes. "Is this about her and grandpa being together?"

Leia stared at Ami in wonder. The things that came out of her mouth surprised Leia sometimes.

"This has nothing to do with that," Leia said trying to keep the displeasure out her tone.

"Well I think it does and I think it's childish," Ami snapped.

Leia was stunned. Was her eight year old daughter calling her childish?

"You don't know what you're talking about little one. This has nothing to do with that. I know things about Ahsoka that you don't and though I've forgiven her I can't forget that she is capable of doing it."

"Then have you really forgiven her for whatever it was?" Ami shot sharply. "Besides, you always say I don't know what I'm talking about. Why do you treat me like I'm stupid?"

"I don't think you're stupid," Leia said. "But I'm your mother and I want to protect you. I can't do that if you don't listen to me."

"But you're not listening to me! And you're not trying to understand me at all!" Ami shouted finally and stormed past Leia in a force run. Leia ran after her but by the time she got to the living room, Ami was already out the door.

Leia groaned in frustration. She just didn't get it with Ami. Why couldn't she just do as she was told? She hadn't even been that strong minded and independent as a child. There was just no talking to her. Leia had to debate with her eight-year-old about everything. Hell, she acted more like a teenager than a little girl.

"She ran off again huh?" Han asked Leia.

"Yeah," Leia said staring at the door.

"Well we're not on Coruscant. Wherever she is, she's safe in the Jedi temple. It might just be best to let her blow off some steam," Han suggested. "She'll be back. She always comes back."

Leia knew that. The problem was every time Ami ran off, she stayed gone longer and longer.

xxxxxxxxxxx

Ahsoka carefully tiptoed into her room just in case Anakin was asleep. She assumed he was since the lights were out and was going to use the force to make her way around the room until the lights came on.

Anakin had indeed been asleep on the bed, but sensing Ahsoka come in, he used the force to turn on the lights and rolled over to face her.

"Where were you?" he asked sitting up with his arms crossed over his bare chest.

"With Amidala," Ahsoka replied.

"Ami?" Anakin asked and Ahsoka nodded. Anakin started to ask her why she didn't call her Ami like everyone else did, but left it alone. It would probably be something he didn't understand anyway.

"That took longer than I thought."

"We got carried away," Ahsoka said with a small smile and then it widened as she continued, "She's a sweet little girl. Very powerful in the force for someone her age. On first thought she seems a little arrogant, but she's just confident in what she knows she can do. I don't see why Luke doesn't go on and take her into the academy to be trained. At the rate she's going, she'll be a Jedi knight by the time she's sixteen."

"Luke says she has an anger issue," Anakin replied. "That's odd. I never thought that when she lived with me and Padmé."

"She's just bored. She's way beyond her peers in force learning. She probably thinks she's being held back and gets angry to show it. But she had no anger issues when I was showing her how to use a light saber," Ahsoka said taking off her boots and then flexing her prosthetic hand.

Anakin was silent and Ahsoka paused as she put her boots up when she felt Anakin's amusement.

"What?" she asked looking at him confused.

He shrugged. "Nothing. I've just never seen you this excited about something. Ami's really made an impression on you huh?" he asked coming up behind her and wrapping his arms around her.

"I don't want to pick favorites, but so far…" Ahsoka trailed off as Anakin began to kiss her neck. She giggled. "Skyguy stop it. I was talking."

"We can talk. There are different ways to talk," he said.

"We've had a long day," Ahsoka said trying to pull out his grip which was proving to be difficult.

"Since when has that ever mattered?"

Ahsoka once again tried to pull away and Anakin laughed as she struggled in vain. Then she twisted herself in a way that made them both stumble and fall onto the bed. Anakin laughed as a flustered Ahsoka tried to sit up and glare at him but he kept her pinned to the bed.

She finally gave up and crossed her arms as she continued trying not to laugh.

"Anyway, Amidala wasn't any trouble at all. She just seems a little troubled about something. Other than that, she's a very sweet girl," Ahsoka said with a small smile.

"She seems to like you a lot. I've never seen her take to a stranger this way before," Anakin pointed out leaning on his arm.

"I guess. I don't usually like children at all either but…" Ahsoka trailed off.

Anakin frowned. "What?"

Ahsoka sighed as she looked at the ceiling in deep thought. "I haven't felt a connection with anyone like the one I had with Amidala since I met Leia and became her master."

"You mean you think she's going to be your next student?" Anakin asked.

Ahsoka laughed. "If it were what I thought, I'd never take another student. I almost ruined Leia."

"In that case, you've never really had a student," Anakin pointed out and Ahsoka decided not to bother trying to argue with him about how he viewed her two personalities per say. "It's about time I think."

"You're one to talk," Ahsoka pointed out. "You only had one student in your life."

"Because you were the only student I needed to train."

"Hm," Ahsoka said contemplatively. "I guess it would be nice to be a master again."

"I think Ami would like it better if she could call you grandma," Anakin muttered.

It took a moment for Ahsoka to figure out what Anakin meant, but when she did figure it out, she rolled her eyes. Here he went again…

"Let's not talk about this again Anakin," she muttered.

Anakin sighed. "Why not Ahsoka?"

"Why do we need to? Marriage is for young people who are insecure about their relationship and use a piece of paper to solidify it. I don't need that. Don't want it," Ahsoka said finally getting out her lover's grip.

"Where do you come up with these feminist ideas?" Anakin asked. "Just because I want to marry you doesn't mean I'm insecure. To some people marriage is just showing how much they love someone. It's about commitment and devotion."

"I don't need a piece of paper to tell me how committed and devoted I am to you," Ahsoka said sourly.

"Yeah, because it just proves how much you aren't," Anakin shot starting to lie back down to go to sleep.

"What are you talking about?" she asked whirling around to look at him.

Anakin didn't reply, but he was obviously irritated, visibly and through the force.

"Skyguy what do you mean by that?"

"Well you have a track record for running away when you don't want to face something or things get difficult. Excuse me for wanting proof that you're not going to run off again. You do have that tendency," he muttered bitterly.

"That's exactly what I'm talking about. That's all marriage means and if you want to marry me to insure that I'll stick around then no," Ahsoka snapped.

"It's not even about that for me. I'm not scared you don't want to stick around but I can't ignore the fact that you're afraid to commit to anything fully."

Ahsoka would never know how Anakin knew how to say just the right words to strike a chord in her.

"That's not true," she said letting her anger take over to cover her hurt. "I am committed to you."

"Right now!" Anakin pointed out. "But there's always a loophole with you. You want that back door just in case something goes wrong, and you've got to much pride to face up to it."

"Oh please," Ahsoka said rolling her eyes.

"And now you're not listening because you don't want to face the truth. This is oddly familiar now isn't it?" Anakin asked sarcastically.

"You're just insecure."

"You just don't want to admit you don't want to fully commit," Anakin shot back glaring at her.

There was a long pause and then Ahsoka groaned before saying, "I'm not talking about this anymore. I'm going to bed."

Ahsoka laid down next to Anakin, but the Jedi master got up and started to pull on his tunic. Ahsoka sat up in confusion.

"What are you doing?" she asked and Anakin didn't reply as he started for the door.

"Skyguy where are you going?" Ahsoka asked as she sat up trying to catch him before he left.

"Anakin!" she said just as Anakin shut the door behind him, startling Ahsoka with how loud it was. She sighed and crossed her arms before groaning and falling back on the bed. Now that he was gone, she had no problem admitting to herself that he was right about everything he said, which was why it bothered her so much.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

**AN:** I'm so glad to have a charger for my pc again. I was depressed. Like I had lost my best friend or something. The charge came quicker than I thought it would as I didn't expect it to come until Tuesday. I was so happy. So that was the chapter. Hope you enjoyed. Review Please… Now to go work on **Sanctioned by an Angel**…


	4. Part Four

**AN: **Wow, I didn't know that ending would make the chapter so popular. I loved the reviews for it and I'm shocked how everyone seems not to like Leia… I guess when a writer can make a reader hate one of the good guys, something being done right. But Leia was like that in the EU when it came to Anakin and so I thought why not bring that plot back for Ahsoka somehow. Anywho, here's the next chapter and the issue at the end of the last only gets partially resolved… Just partially. Anyway, I won't spoil it. And I have to go update Light of Liberty.

Read, enjoy, and review!

xxxxxxxxxxxxx

**Part Four**

Ami sighed as sat outside in the courtyard near the small pond with her feet in the water. Her mother was probably worried about her, but Ami almost didn't care, almost… She didn't mean to upset her mother, but her mother could be so frustrating.

"Not like she cares anyway…" Ami muttered to herself.

She just didn't understand what she was feeling and didn't even try to. Ami didn't even understand what she was feeling. But she did know she felt like she was being held back somehow. She was destined for more than what she was.

"What are you doing out here?"

Ami had felt the boy coming behind her long before he said anything and she sighed.

"I've never seen you around here before. You must be one of my uncle's new students," Ami pointed out.

"How would you know?" the brown haired boy said sitting next to her. "You haven't even looked at me."

"I would have recognized your force presence," Ami pointed out. "So are you new around here?"

"Yes?"

Ami looked at the boy surprised to see a boy around fifteen or sixteen years of age.

"What?" he asked.

Ami shrugged. "You felt older."

"Did I?"

Ami shrugged and sighed as she played in the water. The boy looked at her and frowned.

"Master Luke won't be pleased if he finds you out here. Shouldn't you go back inside?"

"He's not my master. He won't even take me on as a student because he and my mother don't think I'm ready," Ami grumbled.

"Then why are you here?"

"My mom decided to take us on a vacation and Uncle Luke insisted we come here since we don't see him like we used to since we're always on Coruscant," Ami explained.

The boy frowned. "You're Master Skywalker's oldest niece?" he asked.

"Everyone here knows that. Did you have to ask?"

The boy laughed. "How could we not know? You're always causing trouble."

Ami groaned and pulled her feet out the water fully intending to leave while she said, "It's not my fault. They just don't understand. No adult understands except maybe my grandpa, but this is the first time I've seen him in years. I can't stand this place. I just want to go away and learn the force the way I want to and not with all the rules and stuff my mother and uncle tell me."

Ami expected the boy to tell her the same things her mother and uncle told her, the stuff about patience, staying calm, keeping her anger in check, but the boy didn't say those things. Instead he laughed.

"Yeah. That can be frustrating. I know how you feel," he said to her.

Ami smiled and put her feet back in the water. "I thought I was the only one who felt that way. What's your name?"

"Matthew."

xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Anakin was silent as he watched the sun rise from the roof of the Praxeum. Ahsoka was probably worried about him, but he didn't feel like going back that night. She could be so frustrating. Of course, it had crossed his mind that maybe he was pushing her and being a bit of a jerk about it, especially since it was a known fact he had a problem with pride. But he didn't think he was being too unreasonable. To tell the truth, he understood the reason Ahsoka gave for why she didn't want to get married. It made sense. And he would actually leave the issue alone if he knew she wasn't lying about it. What she told him were just excuses to cover up the real reason.

This was worse than when he was trying to get Padmé to marry him. Actually, getting her to marry him had been the easy part one she admitted she loved him. However, his entire relationship with Ahsoka was complicated.

Some people would probably think he was crazy to be in a relationship with her after the history they had, but because of that history it made their bond stronger rather than weak. They had overcome some rather impossible odds and been through a lot together, on opposing sides, to end up together. Maybe that's why it hadn't been awkward when they first pursued a relationship together. The bond was already there, lying dormant for them to discover or at least act upon.

"Ami," Leia said and then saw her father sitting on the roof. "I didn't sense you up here. Why are you shielding your presence?"

"Didn't want to be found," Anakin said to her. Leia started to leave but then Anakin said, "Why are you looking for Ami?"

Leia sighed crossing her arms. "She ran off last night and didn't come back. I'm worried about her…"

"Ami's a very independent child. You shouldn't."

"That's not the problem," Leia muttered starting to walk away.

"Leia," Anakin said and Leia stopped walking. "Why are you so bothered about all of this?"

"Bothered about what?" Leia asked.

"Don't play dumb with me Leia. You know what I'm talking about," Anakin said irritated.

Leia sighed and sat next to her father. "Dad. It's just… after everything she's done to us, you want to get in a relationship with her?"

"What's she's done is in the past and she's repenting for her sins. What more do you want her to do Leia?"

"Nothing," Leia said looking down. "It just seems like she finally won after all this time. You were all she ever wanted."

"We can't say she was just waiting for the opportunity. She left for seven years," Anakin pointed out.

"Even more of a reason for you not to pursue whatever it is you're pursuing with her dad. She has a history of fleeing from her problems with people. She'd sooner fight a war."

Anakin sighed and then grumbled, "Try not to remind me. I've been working on it for the last year."

Leia looked at her dad in confusion. "What are you talking about?"

Anakin shook his head. "Nothing princess. Go find Ami. I'll figure this out."

Leia wasn't so sure but got up to go find Ami in any case. She climbed down the stairs and started back into the halls. To her displeasure, she ran into her least favorite person. She rolled her eyes and started to walk past the older woman, but Ahsoka stopped her.

"Leia," she said.

It was only the worry and regret in her tone that made Leia turn around. She wasn't used to feeling these kinds of emotions from the women. She was only accustomed to feeling three things from her: smug satisfaction, anger, and something akin to regret which she only felt after the Battle of Endor. So to hear worry and something akin to sadness mixed with regret was new to Leia.

"Yes," Leia said trying not to sound concerned.

"Have you seen Anakin?"

Leia scowled at the way her father's name rolled off of Ahsoka's tongue. It was so familiar, like the lovers they were. She couldn't stand it. Only her mother had the right to say her father's name like that. It was like mocking her.

"You don't know where he is?"

"We had a little disagreement, and he's blocking me from finding him," Ahsoka admitted.

"About what?" Leia asked.

Ahsoka frowned then. "It's not really any of your business. If you haven't seen him, I'll just-."

"He's on the roof," Leia said bitterly as she continued down the hall to look for Ami.

Ahsoka sighed at the obvious resentment in Leia's presence before climbing the stairs and heading to the roof where she found Anakin simply staring at the sky. He probably felt like flying. He stared at the sky a lot when he was tired of being grounded.

Ahsoka crossed her arms and sat next to him. Anakin didn't move to get away from her so she guessed he wasn't as upset as he had been the night before. She leaned her head on his shoulder and he reached over to grab her hand.

"Anakin," she began.

"Ahsoka," he said cutting her off as he shook his head. "Forget it. It's alright. I understand."

"But Anakin-."

Anakin sighed. "There's enough unspoken bad history between us as it is Ahsoka. Let's not add something as silly as this to the list. If you don't want to get married, that's fine. We don't have to. I may not like it and I may not believe that you're telling everything, but who am I to say you're lying about it. You're right. A piece of paper doesn't matter. I'm going to love you anyway."

Ahsoka had to admit. That was easier than she thought it would be. However, she had a feeling it wasn't going to be that simple and so instead she steered the topic over to something else.

"What did Leia want?"

"She can't find Ami. She ran off last night," Anakin said.

Ahsoka tapped into the force to find the girl but was surprised at what she found instead, a void in the force where Ami's presence should have been. In fact, it wasn't a void at all. There was just nothing there. She sat up startled

"Anakin. How does Ami know how to hide her presence in the force?"

"Probably got that from Leia. She was able to figure that out by herself when she was younger too," Anakin pointed out.

"No wonder I never detected who she was all those years," Ahsoka muttered. "You haven't looked for Ami yet though?

Anakin shrugged. "Wherever she is, she's just fine. Sometimes she just needs time to cool off," he said.

"Still," Ahsoka said standing up. "I'm going to find her. Are you coming?"

Anakin paused and then stood up to follow her curious about Ahsoka's concern for the girl. Ahsoka wasn't mean… at least not unless she relapsed into her old sith ways momentarily, but she was a bit cold. She had pretty much lost the ability to care and the only real warmth in her heart for anyone was the Skywalker family, her ladies, and some of the _Enchantress' _crew. But it always took a while for her to warm up to people. Anakin wasn't sure if that was because she used to be a sith or if that's how she had been all along and they had been too busy fighting in the clone wars for her to have time to sit down and be social. Not to mention she didn't get along with any of the other padawans except Barris and then she became a knight. And Anakin certainly doubted being social was a characteristic of a sith.

So it was a little odd to him to see her warm up so much to his granddaughter who, Luke and Leia claimed had a real anger issue.

"Why are you so concerned about Ami?" Anakin decided to ask.

Ahsoka paused mid-step on the stairway and realized she was wondering the same thing before shrugging and continuing on her way.

"I'm so used to doing things with the force that it's a foreign to look for someone without it," Ahsoka said as she went in the opposite direction that Leia had. "Now where would she go?"

"Anywhere there's water," Anakin suggested. "She loves Naboo."

"Naboo?" Ahsoka asked remembering passing a pond or something of the sort with a small waterfall before the Praxeum.

"When Leia first had Ami, the government was still very unstable and then there were some imperial remnants who didn't like the fact that the alliance and the empire had come together to form a truce. So even though Leia adored Ami, realistically, she couldn't take care of her like she needed to as she was the very person holding the government together. Not only did the empire look to her as their leader, but the members of the alliance."

Ahsoka knew that. It was the reason she had given Leia the empire. The empire would listen to her with Pesinoé's name backing her and the alliance would trust that she wouldn't betray them.

Anakin continued. "Since Padmé had long since retired and she was sick anyway, she took Ami to Naboo with she was six weeks old and took care of her until she died. In fact, Ami was there when it happened," Anakin explained. "Anyway, by that time the government was stable and Leia could dedicate her time to the children more. She had the twins anyway and had been juggling taking care of them for nearly two years. But I get the feeling that Ami misses Naboo and so she's always been one to spend her time near water whenever she could."

Ahsoka nodded and they came upon the fountain where sure enough, Ami was sitting with her feet in the water talking to one of Luke's older students.

"Amidala," Ahsoka said and Ami turned around frowning a little and then grinning.

"Hello Ahsoka. Hello grandpa," she said standing up and grabbing her shoes.

"Ami," Anakin said to her. "Your mother's looking for you."

Ami rolled her eyes. "I know," she groaned.

"Where have you been?" Anakin said.

Ami gestured to the teenage padawan that stood up. "I was talking to Matthew."

The young man nodded his head. "Master Skywalker," he said and then looked at Ahsoka not sure what to call her.

"Just Ahsoka," she said.

"Yes ma'am," he said. "She was no trouble sir. We were just talking. I hope she doesn't get into too much trouble. I didn't think she should be out here all night alone."

"All night?" Ahsoka asked looking at Ami.

"What?" Ami said carelessly. "It's no worse than being on Coruscant at night… In fact it's nowhere near it."

"Coruscant?" Both Anakin and Ahsoka said alarmed.

Ami shrugged and Matthew gave her a sympathetic look before going back into the Praxeum.

"What do you mean no worse than Coruscant at night?" Anakin asked her sternly.

"I always leave the house at night," she admitted quietly. "Well, not always. Only when I argue with mom. And I never really go anywhere. I'm usually just hiding on the roof."

Anakin and Ahsoka exchanged a look.

"Can we train some more today Ahsoka?" she asked. "I want to practice with the light saber again."

"Sure," Ahsoka said deciding this would give her a chance to talk to Ami.

"Are you coming too Grandpa?"

"Hm?" Anakin said obviously lost in thought.

"Are you coming?" Ami asked grabbing Ahsoka's hand.

Anakin shook his head. "No. I'm going to talk to your mother. I'll see you later princess."

Ami nodded and Ahsoka led her to one of the practice rooms where she took out her light saber and handed it to Ami.

"Don't turn it on," Ahsoka said. "You need to work on your grip."

Ami sighed but relented as Ahsoka adjusted her fingers.

"Amidala?" Ahsoka asked.

"Yes," Ami sang.

"Why do you fight with your mother all the time?"

Ami groaned. "She just doesn't understand anything. Even when I try to tell her things she doesn't understand. The only one who ever understood me was grandma and grandpa."

"Padmé?" Ahsoka asked.

Ami nodded. "Who else? Anyway, I don't want to fight with her. She just… she makes me so angry sometimes."

Ahsoka stopped helping the girl with her arm movements and looked at her.

"Angry?"

"Yeah and… I don't want to be angry because it makes me dark. I don't want to be dark and so I just go away so the darkness will go too," Ami admitted.

Ahsoka frowned. She didn't have much to do with children. In fact, she never really wanted children at all. It wasn't something she thought about as a padawan and as a sith lady, children never even crossed her mind. However, she was pretty sure that regular children weren't this intuitive.

"Why are you showing me to hold it like that?" Ami suddenly asked.

"Hold it like what?"

"You're showing me how to hold it like this," Ami said holding the light saber in the grip Ahsoka had just showed her. "But you hold yours like this."

Ami flipped the light saber into the backwards grip Ahsoka was accustomed to holding her light saber in.

"How did you know that?"

"Because yesterday you when you first showed me, you were holding it like this. But then you switched it right before you started showing me," Ami pointed out.

"Observant young lady aren't you?" Ahsoka asked dryly. "Anyway, my grip is a little unorthodox and actually, it's a little dangerous. Right now, stick with the basic more proper grip"

"Okay," Ami said shrugging.

"Now back to this being angry thing," Ahsoka said casually. "What are you angry at? Why are you angry?"

Ami's eyes flashed darkly for a moment and then lightened up as she looked at the floor in guilt. "I don't know I guess."

She was lying and Ahsoka knew it. However, instead of pointing that out to Ami and risking her getting defensive, she asked, "Then when aren't you angry?"

Ami paused for a moment. "With my grandpa," she admitted finally but Ahsoka had a feeling she wasn't done. "And with you."

Ahsoka stared at Ami who just as quickly as she made her admission went back to practicing with the light saber. That was it. Leia could be as angry at Ahsoka as she wanted, but she had to have a talk with her about her daughter.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Anakin headed toward the falcon where Han was apparently teaching Jaina something about hyper drives and the girl listened with rapt attention as he did so.

He had intended to talk to Leia .He didn't really want to talk to Han, and it wasn't that it had anything to do with that fact that he didn't like the man. Han had grown on him in the last few years. But when he thought about it, he couldn't go to Leia or she might feel like she was being insulted on her mothering skills.

"Han," Anakin said to gain the man's attention.

"Oh hey Anakin," Han said. "Need something?"

"We need to talk," Anakin said bluntly. "About Ami."

"Ami," Han muttered looking at Jaina. "You think you can handle that while I'm gone Jaina?"

"Yes Daddy," she said engrossed in what she was doing.

Han followed Anakin off the Falcon and when Anakin turned to him with his arms crossed, Han raised his hands in innocence.

"I didn't do whatever it was," he said.

"It's not about you Han. It's just something Ami said when me and Ahsoka found her. I was going to go to Leia, but…"

"What?"

"What's wrong with Ami?" Anakin asked. "Why is she so volatile? She just told me and Ahsoka that she goes out at night after she argues with Leia. The way she said it, it sound like it happens a lot."

Han sighed rubbing his head. "And it's happening more and more Anakin. Believe that."

"What's going on?" Anakin said softly.

"We've been trying to figure it out," Han admitted. "We really don't know. She was always quiet and reserved. She was prone to doing her own thing. But suddenly in the last two years, she just became kind of violent."

"Violent?" Anakin asked.

"Yeah. The first time it happened Leia was trying to coax Ami into doing some shopping or something the next day, just the two of them and Ami said no, but like Leia was irritating her or something. Naturally, Leia was concerned and asked her what was wrong and before I knew it, I heard shouting and then the slamming of a door. Come to find out Ami left the house. The first time she left we couldn't find her, but she came back after around twenty minutes or so and it didn't happen again for another five months. But slowly she got angrier at everyone and arguing with Leia and leaving the house for longer periods of time that now, there's not much we can do. We can never find her when we look, but she always comes home alright. Last night was different because she didn't come home at all."

"She acted like it was no big deal," Anakin said distantly. "Do you know why she's so angry?"

Han shrugged. "She won't tell anyone. She acts like she's so afraid sometimes, anxious about something. We just don't know."

Anakin contemplated his words for a moment and then sighed. "This is strange. She didn't act like this when Padmé used to keep her."

"She wasn't eight years old when Padmé kept her either. In any case though, I'm glad you didn't go to Leia. She's strangely protective of Ami. I think it's because she missed out on those first few years of Ami's life. Sometimes she thinks it makes her a bad mother and then the fact that she can't handle Ami just makes it worse. I guess that's why she was so upset about her spending time with Ahsoka," Han said.

Anakin looked up. "She was upset about that?"

Han nodded. "That's why Ami ran off last night."

Anakin frowned. "The question is why doesn't Ami get along with Leia."

"Your guess is as good as mine," Han replied with a shrug.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

**AN: **I'm really interested to see what people think about this chapter. It may not seem important, but me writing this chapter is what really moved the rest of the story into motion. It was at this point I realized this was not going to be a short six part story. I hope you liked it. Got to update Light of Liberty and read over my math stuff for finals.

Hope you enjoyed. Review Please!


	5. Part Five

**AN: **I loved writing this part. It just wrote itself and in twenty minutes it was done. It's not as long as the other chapters, but the length wasn't needed as the objective for this chapter was made and as long as I met that, the length was fine for me. It's a little over 2k words which is short compared to me goal of 2.5k but whatever.

Read, enjoy, and review!

xxxxxxxxxxxxx

**Part Five**

Ahsoka stared off into space as she led Ami back to where her mother was. Ami's confession about feeling angry all the time concerned her. There had to be a reason why she was so angry and someone needed to find out quickly. Anger, especially when a person wouldn't admit why they were angry, was a breeding ground for the dark side, and it appeared that Ami had already had a brush with it before and didn't like how it felt.

She didn't really care if Leia wanted to talk to her or not but the woman was going to listen today.

"Do we have to go find my mother? Why can't I just stay with you and grandpa?" Ami asked.

"Amidala, why does your mother make you angry?"

Ami shrugged a little, but wouldn't look at Ahsoka which made her think the girl was hiding something… Yeap definitely time to have a talk with Leia.

She found her with Luke, along with two women a little older than them talking. One had white hair and the other black hair. Ahsoka stared at them for a moment. She remembered these two from somewhere…

Leia scowled when she saw Ahsoka but immediately brightened when she saw Ami.

"Ami!" she said rushing to her and pulling her away from Ahsoka. "Where have you been little one? I was so worried about you."

Ahsoka carefully watched the interaction between mother and daughter and instantly felt that there was a break in the bond somewhere. Leia was trying so hard to connect with Ami, but Ami was blocking her. That was odd. Ahsoka didn't know much about children, but there was hardly a stronger bond than the one between mother and child, except maybe the one between force twins, but even that was rare. Speaking of twins, she knew where she had seen the two women before.

"Tashina, Rashina," Ahsoka said remembering the twin girls that were in Shaak-Ti's youngling class. "Wow you've grown up. I remember when you were younger then Amidala there. I didn't even know you made it out the temple after-."

Ahsoka abruptly silenced herself as flashes of the younglings that lay dead at her feet came back to her mind, their faces only moments before looking at her in horror as she struck Shaak-Ti down when her back was turned wondering who was going to protect them then.

"Ahsoka," Luke said grabbing the woman's arm as she swayed. "You okay?"

Ahsoka blinked out of her stupor. "Yeah. Yeah I'm alright."

"Ahsoka?" Tashina asked confused.

Rashina gave a bitter laugh. "So did you enjoy being a Sith lord all those years?"

"Ra!" Tashina gasped.

"I'm just asking," Rashina said sizing Ahsoka up.

"No," Ahsoka said looking down. "It's okay."

Luke looked between them and said, "Tashina and Rashina tracked us down after the war and dad finished up their training… Somewhat."

"Somewhat?" Ahsoka asked looking at the two women.

"We don't really claim the title of Jedi even though we're always at the temple," Tashina explained. "We usually just bring in supplies."

Ahsoka nodded in comprehension before turning to Luke and Leia.

"Leia, Luke, can I talk to you and Luke for a minute?"

"Yeah sure," Luke said nodding his head to Tashina and Rashina before they left them. "Mind coming to me and Mara's quarters though? I need to find something."

"I don't really want to talk to her," Leia said crossing her arms.

"Please Leia. It's about-." Ahsoka briefly looked at Ami and Leia sighed.

"Fine," she said grabbing Ami's hand, though the girl quickly snatched her hand away and led the way to her uncle's quarters.

Mara was in the middle of the living room showing Mé how to take a knife out her sleeve and throw it with one movement. She looked up when she saw Ahsoka, Luke, and Leia come in.

"Alright," she said. "What's going on?"

"What makes you think there is something going on?" Luke asked her smirking.

"Because Ahsoka's with you and Leia's been avoiding her like the plague since she got here," Mara said dryly.

"Mara," Luke warned and she rolled her eyes.

"Fine. Let's go practice in the back Mé. You coming Ami?"

"Actually," Ahsoka said. "Maybe Amidala should stay here. This is about her."

"What did you do?" Leia asked automatically.

Ami rolled her eyes. "Why do you always automatically assume that I've done something? Force."

"Leia," Ahsoka said sighing. "She didn't do anything. It's just something she said and I'm concerned. Amidala told me that she had a fight with you."

"It's none of your business but yeah. So?" Leia asked instantly on the defense.

"She told me she gets really angry and that she runs away so that the darkness will go away," Ahsoka added.

"The darkness," Luke said looking at Ami. "Ami, what darkness?"

Ami didn't say anything but instead looked at the floor not meeting anyone's eyes. Ahsoka put her hand on her shoulder.

"You're not in trouble honey. We're just concerned," she said gently and Ami nodded at her.

Leia crossed her arms trying to hide the jealousy she was feeling towards Ahsoka. Ami was much more responsive to a woman who she had known all of two days than she ever was with her mother.

"Ami, why don't you go practice with Mara and Mé?"

Ami sighed and for once did what her mother said, probably because she wanted to do it anyway.

"Somehow I'm not surprised," Luke said sitting down. "Our whole family has battled with the dark side at some point or another, but it's not usually until we're much older."

"I'm worried about her," Ahsoka admitted. "She won't say why she's angry, like she doesn't feel she has anyone to go to. Leia, you really need to get her to talk, even if it's just provoking her into saying it."

"I know that," Leia snapped. "Don't you think I've tried to get her to tell me what's wrong? She won't say anything."

"Try harder," Ahsoka said looking to where Ami had gone. "She's headed down a dark path if she keeps this up. I don't think she feels she can talk to anyone, and it's better that maybe she lashes out at you in anger than her finding someone who will listen and take advantage of her."

"Why would someone do that? She's just a child," Leia muttered.

"A child that's practically the embodiment of the force with her potential," Ahsoka pointed out and for a moment it seemed like Leia would open up to her a little.

She didn't.

"Who are you to tell me how to handle my daughter? I don't need your help," Leia said coldly.

Ahsoka slowly turned to look at Leia again with a raised eyebrow. "I don't know. Who am I? The former Sith lady who fell to the dark side to begin with because she felt like a Sith lord was the only one she could talk to? I'm trying to help you."

"Well I don't need it. You don't just show up and tell me how to take care of my daughter!" Leia said glaring at Ahsoka.

"I'm not trying to, but you're so concerned that I'm trying to do something to her or turn her or something that you won't listen to me," Ahsoka said raising her voice.

"I don't want your help. She's my daughter and I'll figure out what's wrong with her. Nothing's changed about you. Come for a visit and after one day you want to be the boss and Ami falls right into it," Leia muttered.

Ahsoka reared back like she had been slapped. Then she felt the emotion coming off of her and smirked.

"You're jealous?" Ahsoka said to her.

"Don't flatter yourself," Leia said rolling her eyes taking Ahsoka back to the time when she was Pesinoé and Leia made a similar comment and gesture on the Death Star.

"But you are," Ahsoka accused and groaned as her temper started to get the better of her. "I can't believe you're being so kriffing childish. Your daughter needs help and I'm trying to help you give it to her. But you're so upset with me for some God forsaken reason that you won't accept my help."

"Well excuse me for not exactly trusting you. A little suspicious that my mother dies, you come back and hook up with my dad. I can't know if you're the one trying to manipulate Ami or not," Leia shot.

"Hold on a kriffing minute," Ahsoka said pointing her finger (a habit she had gotten from Anakin) at Leia starting to lose her carefully maintained cool. "You're the one that called me and now you're upset because your dad's moved on. Really, you're acting less mature than Ami."

"Well what do you expect? It was either watch my father fall to the dark side or call the woman who killed my mother to save him. You were the lesser of two evils!"

Ahsoka clenched her right prosthetic crystal studded black hand as she felt the darkness creep up in her again, the darkness that she hadn't had to battle in years.

"I think that's enough," she said trying to resist grabbing on to it.

"She's right Leia. She's just trying to help," Luke said noticing Ahsoka clenching her hand.

"Why should I stop?" Leia yelled with tears in her eyes as she glared at Ahsoka. "She killed my mother! And now she's trying to take Ami from me just like she took dad from mom. What are you going to do? You going to attack me and kill me too?"

Ahsoka let out a deep breath. "I really do want to right about now," she said in a voice that was akin to the one belonging to her Sith self. "But I won't."

Ahsoka turned to leave. If she didn't cool off she was going to end up doing something she regretted.

Leia watch her leave with a smug look on her face and probably should have left it while she was ahead, but she couldn't.

"Hmp. I thought so. Wouldn't want to make dad have to side against you again would you?"

It all happened so quick Luke couldn't have intervened to stop it, but he was positive every force sensitive person in the Praxeum felt the spike in the darkness. That was the only warning anyone got before Ahsoka turned on her heel and moved with an effortlessness and grace that Luke didn't know a woman her age could have and her light saber was suddenly in her hand humming to life. She back handed Leia across her right cheek with her prosthetic hand. Then she grabbed Leia by the neck, threw her on the ground and put her light saber to the girl's neck.

"How dare you?" Ahsoka said trembling and then insulting Leia in her native language.

"Ahsoka stop it," Luke said taking a step toward them. But there was nothing he could do except try to calm her down. If he got too close to her, he might provoke her into attacking.

Having heard the commotion, Mara, Mé, and Ami came in the room and froze at the door.

"You don't think I live with that every day!" Ahsoka yelled at her. "I know I killed her and I battle with it all the time. I still feel the guilt that ultimately it's my fault she died. How dare you think I'm just some cold heartless monster still? I'm not perfect. The darkness is still there, the seduction, the manipulative impulse, the desire to have my way and control everything but damn it I fight it. I fight it all the time. And it's so hard," she said with a bitter laugh.

"It's so hard to live with that and be with your father knowing that in the end I got what I wanted. I didn't want her to die anymore, but the very thing I used to want happened because of something I did a long time ago and I got my chance. Do you know how hard it is for me not to bolt in my guilt and leave everything again? But I don't. I don't because despite everything, when I would have never forgiven me if I was your father, he did. He did, when I know I didn't deserve it, and that's why I fight it even when it threatens to overwhelm me I push it away."

Everyone was silent as they stared at Ahsoka, angry tears streaming down her face. Then she laughed, a laugh that was remnant of Pesinoé's cold evil laugh. Her lightsaber itched closer to Leia's neck.

"But you know what? Maybe it's not even worth trying to resist anymore when there's still that doubt in the back of everyone's mind that I'm going to go back to my old ways. Maybe I should just prove you all right and show you that Darth Pesinoé is very much alive inside of me. Maybe it's time to stop fighting it," Ahsoka said as her blue eyes turned yellow.

_Ahsoka no!_

Ahsoka blinked in surprise.

"Padmé," she muttered.

_It's okay. Calm down. Just walk away._

Ahsoka blinked again as she started to snap out of her fit of rage, Padmé's voice whispering to her the entire time. When she was out of it, she looked at Leia who was on the ground staring at her with a mixture of fear and something else that Ahsoka couldn't pin point. Regret maybe?

Ahsoka didn't stick around to find out. She swore under her breath, turned off her light saber, put in back on her belt and fled the room.

xxxxxxxxxxxxx

**AN:** I have a feeling that I've made you all hate Leia more right now, but I thought it was reasonable being that in the series she was always close to her mother. Of course she'd blame Ahsoka for killing her. It makes sense to me and I always left that possibility open. Hm. Anyway a few announcements…

**Sanctioned by an Angel **is done… well the first story. I really did want it to be one story but I got to this part where it really was another part of the story and better off having its own tale. So in essence, it's finished, but not finished and boy was it hard to write at first because I was trying to make it a romantic adventure when it was actually more of an adventurous romance. In other words, unlike my other stories that are adventures with romantic subplots, this one was a romance with some adventure in it. It was fun trying my hand at a romance as I had never written one before and I had the issue of trying to make this and Ahsoka/Vader romance and not a Padmé/Vader romance with Ahsoka acting as Padmé (I know you probably didn't get that, but you'll see when I post it). And before anyone ask, I don't do anything M rated when it comes to relationships (I can't say the same for violence. I can rock some M rated violence). So no sex scenes but don't worry I'm not going to disappoint you with what I do have. I've decided that it'll be up on **December 27, 2010 **which is the same day I post the third Arc to **Light of Liberty**. So in the next three weeks I have my work cut out for me.

So that's it. I hope you enjoyed. Review please!


	6. Part Six

**AN:** I loved the responses of the last chapter. Thank you for the feedback. I find writing an older Anakin Skywalker something of a fun challenge because although people do mellow out with age, they always keep that stubborn youthful fire somewhere and it comes out sometimes. Then I had to make him wiser, yet still sound like Anakin. Great fun it is trying to pull that off. Really get into the mind of the character. Anywho, this chapter makes up for the last chapter in length and it should keep you full until Monday.

Read, enjoy, and review!

xxxxxxxxxxxxx

**Part Six**

Leia winced as Luke put an ice pack on her cheek and Mara went to find some ointment to put on the burn on her neck where Ahsoka's light saber had touched it. They were silent as it all came crashing down on them just how dangerous the woman used to be and _still _was. That much the former sith lady had admitted herself.

The door to the suite opened and in came Anakin followed by Han who was muttering about force running jedi and trying to keep up with them. He briefly took in the scene and frowned.

"What happened?" Anakin asked.

"Your Sith lady girlfriend attacked Leia is what," Mara said bluntly. "Darn near killed her too."

"What?" Anakin asked as his face fell looking at Leia in concerned.

"Shocked?" Leia asked with dry sarcasm.

"Well…" Han said looking at Anakin. "She has a history of going all dark on people. I mean, she was evil for twenty-something years."

Luke rolled his eyes. "Don't put all the blame on Ahsoka, Leia. You provoked her and you know it."

Anakin gave his daughter a stern look. "You did what?"

Leia was silent.

"Leia!" Anakin said with an expression that would scare a krayt dragon into hiding.

She groaned. "I wasn't trying to. It was an accident. Besides, she came in here trying to tell me how to raise my daughter."

"An accident," Luke said dryly. "Keep telling yourself that Leia. You knew exactly which buttons to press. There's no way around it. You goaded her into attacking you knowing she was trying to keep her temper in check."

Anakin sighed. "Will someone tell me exactly what happened?"

"Ahsoka was worried about something Ami told her and so she came to ask her about it. Leia got upset about it and flipped the script by bringing up the past. Ahsoka really did try to walk away before she attacked. She was trying to get her darkness under control. But Leia just had to be smug and comment on it and say she wouldn't want you to side against her again and Ahsoka lost whatever control she was trying to maintain," Luke said glaring at Leia.

"We don't know what snapped her out of it," Mara muttered. "She muttered someone's name under her breath and then just like that stopped and ran out the room."

"She said Padmé," Leia grumbled.

"Padmé?" Anakin asked.

"Well considering that's what they were fighting about it makes sense," Luke said sitting next to Leia.

"What did you say to her about that?" Anakin asked.

Leia shrugged carelessly. "I told her it was her fault mom died."

Anakin didn't know how to react. He didn't know whether he should grab Leia by the neck and strangle her or go find Ahsoka before she possibly packed up and left.

"Leia… You-. Ugh," Anakin groaned and then shouted, "I can't even find the words to say to you. That's so low."

"It's true though. It was her fault," Leia snapped. "And then you go and sleep with her like everything's just peachy, like none of it happened."

"Why are you bringing all of this up?" Anakin said ignoring the fact that she had practically insulted him. "I thought you had gotten past all this. Hell, you were the one that convinced her to find me after Padmé died if I remember what Ahsoka told me."

"I know okay," Leia yelled banging her hands on the table and the lights flickered. "But damn it what choice did I have? I wasn't about to lose you too. I had to do something. But just because I forgave her for it doesn't make it all go away! I can't forget what she did to me, what she did to our family. It's one thing to forgive her, but a completely different thing to invite her into the family like she didn't try to break us apart for a good half of her life."

With that, Leia got up, removing the ice pack from her face, and turned to Ami.

"Let's go," she said.

Ami, who had been strangely quiet the entire time glared at her mother and crossed her arms.

"What if I don't want to? What if I want to go with grandpa and find Ahsoka?" she challenged.

Leia blew out hard. "I don't have time for this. You're coming with me now and you're not going near her again. Now let's go."

Ami scowled at her mother about to protest, but Han put a hand on her shoulder.

"Come on sweetheart. Let's not do this right now okay?" he asked.

Ami's face softened a little and she grabbed her father's hand letting her lead her out. Leia was too angry to be hurt by her daughter's obvious rejection of her and stormed out behind them.

If Anakin weren't so distracted, he would have been concerned with the fact that Ami didn't at all seem to care that Ahsoka had stacked her mother. Instead, he sighed as he sat in the seat Leia had vacated, covering his face with his prosthetic hand.

"Father," Luke said. "Leia will get over it. She won't be this difficult forever."

"If I had known bringing Ahsoka here would cause all this trouble I wouldn't have brought her at all. I afraid this would happen. I should have told her not to come." Anakin muttered.

Mara groaned loudly. "Whatever? Are you really that shocked? This whole family is messed up. Han used to be a pirate and I was an assassin for the empire for Force's sake. How were you supposed to know that a former Sith lady would cause so much trouble? Leia will get over it."

"But she's right. In a sense she did kill Padmé," Anakin admitted though it didn't bother him anymore like it used to.

Mara rolled her eyes. "Leia's just acting like the spoiled princess she is because she's upset Ami will talk to Ahsoka more than to her. But this much is clear right about now. Ahsoka is feeling like a bunch of crap right now and if you don't go find her, she's going to do something really stupid. And I don't just mean running off again. She look like she really wanted to use the dark side. She kind of has a track record for latching on to it when her emotions are disturbed. So stop wallowing in self pity about it and go find her," Mara said pulling Anakin up and pushing him towards the door.

Anakin seemed stunned that his daughter-in-law was telling him off and started to retort but Mara shut him up.

"You can argue with me later for this. Now go," Mara said closing the door on Anakin.

Luke raised an eyebrow. "What was that?"

"The one thing I know about this family is that they overcome their problems in the end even if it's an ugly road. I mean look at me and you. It took us having Mé to finally commit," she pointed out in a way that only she could.

Luke nodded. His wife had a point.

"The problem is that it always takes a long time for them to get there. I'd would like for us not to be dealing with this in another five years or so, so it's better for someone to force them to handle this now," she said.

Luke stared at Mara for a minute before laughing, wrapping an arm around her waist and kissing her.

"I love you a lot you know?"

Mara laughed. "I know. Otherwise we wouldn't have finally gotten married."

xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Anakin wasn't surprised to find Ahsoka in the sparing room trying to blow off some steam, her lightsaber twirling in her hands with the practiced and dangerous efficiency she had as a Sith lady except a little more controlled. A person couldn't tell she was so skilled by simply looking at her and that was how Ahsoka liked it. It came with being the mistress of seduction. She never actually was what she seemed or pretended to be.

She took out one last training droid before stopping when she sensed Anakin come into the room. She turned off her light saber.

"Snips," he said.

"I take it they told you what I did huh?" she asked with her arms crossed staring at the floor.

"They also told me what Leia did to make you act that way," Anakin said coming to stand next to her.

"That's no excuse," Ahsoka said throwing her light saber down. "I shouldn't have done that."

"Is that why you're angry right now or is it something else," Anakin asked.

"What makes you say that?" she asked finally looking at him, only to turn the other way again.

"Because I've known you since you were almost fourteen, since I was twenty. That's almost forty years Ahsoka. I know you," he pointed out.

Ahsoka laughed. "It doesn't seem like it's been that long since we met," she muttered. "You were the hot shot and newly knighted jedi."

"And you were the infuriating padawan they decided to toss on that said hot shot Jedi knight," Anakin added.

Ahsoka laughed. "You definitely weren't happy," she said. "You thought it had been a mistake and I was supposed to train with Obi-wan. But I grew on you."

"Hardly," Anakin muttered. "You were a challenge and I was no coward. You grew on me some time after that."

Ahsoka sighed wistfully wishing they could go back to where everything was so simple, before she turned. Sensing her train of thought, Anakin put his arms around her and leaned his chin between her montrals. She giggled and Anakin smiled. Her montrals had always been sensitive. It was like scratching a cat behind the ears.

"I don't deserve you," she finally admitted as they began to rock from side to side.

"Is that what you think or is that what Leia told you," Anakin asked dryly still infuriated with his daughter but to be honest he couldn't really blame her … in a way.

"I've always thought that. Leia just reminded me why I think that," Ahsoka muttered.

"She's just upset. She'll get over it. It can't be helped with her. If it's anyone's fault, it's mine for letting you come. I knew this would happen…"

"No," Ahsoka suddenly said shaking her head as she pulled away abruptly. "That's no excuse. I attacked her."

"Only because she provoked you," Anakin said sighing. Ahsoka didn't have to go to such lengths when she attacked Leia, but everyone knew Ahsoka was a ticking time bomb. It was stupid to provoke her _on purpose_.

"That's not an excuse," Ahsoka snapped whirling on him. "She was right. She was right about everything and I snapped because I didn't want to hear it. I didn't want her to remind me and I tried to kill her!"

Anakin didn't say anything. He had learned from dealing with her that it was best if he just let her get it out before he soothed her.

"And I wanted to kill her! Just like I wanted to kill Padmé. And it took a long time but she died in the end because of what I did to her and I have to live with that. I have to live with that guilt and the whispers telling me if it's really worth fighting that anymore. Trying to redeem myself when I know it's impossible," Ahsoka said shaking now. "I…"

She trailed off and let out a sob as she sank down to the floor leaning against the wall with her hands on her head. Anakin sat next to her and tried to pull her to him.

"No!" she hissed. "Don't touch me. I don't deserve to be comforted. Leia was right… You were right."

"About what?"

Ahsoka didn't immediately reply.

"Ahsoka," Anakin said again.

"I was going to leave," she admitted. "I wasn't even going to pack. I had my lightsaber and I was going to disappear again, just like that. You were right."

"Actually," Anakin said with a smirk. "If you think about it. You just proved me wrong. You stayed."

"If only to prove you wrong," Ahsoka admitted.

Anakin scowled. "So if I hadn't brought it up, you would have left because you wouldn't have had to prove me wrong? That's certainly not comforting me about that issue if that's what you're trying to do," he pointed out.

Ahsoka glared at him half-heartedly and Anakin decided they'd save the marriage and commitment issue for another day. Instead he knelt down next to her and tried to pull her into his arms.

"Don't touch me," she hissed pulling away. "I don't deserve it. Leave me alone."

"Ahsoka," Anakin said pulling her to him anyway. She didn't resist. "Why do you still let all this bother you?"

"I can't help it," Ahsoka whispered. "The darkness is still there and no matter what I do, I can't get rid of it. All it takes is someone to push the right buttons and it takes me back. I'm Pesinoé all over again and it scares me. How can you love me after all of that? How can you forgive me? How can anyone?"

"Been there and done that Ahsoka," Anakin said patiently and knowingly. "It only hurts the people you care about when you hold on to something like this. You can't let guilt eat away at you and that's why you can't conquer your darkness completely. The more you wallow in it, the more you wonder if it's worth trying to redeem yourself until you go back to it."

"That's the problem. Sometimes I still want to go back to it. Not all the time, but sometimes I crave the power that comes with the darkness. It's like a drug and I'm on a high."

"The problem with it is that the more you keep taking it, the harder it is to quit when you decided to let it go and it seems like you felt better with something you knew wasn't good for you in the first place. It's a false power, but in order to maintain it you have to go deeper and deeper into it. It's never enough," Anakin muttered.

"How do you know?" Ahsoka asked.

"Because you're not the only one battling a darkness Ahsoka. I battle mine all the time too," Anakin replied. "It was worse when I was younger though. I felt just like you. Lost, wondering if it was all worth it… It is."

"That's what Padmé told me," Ahsoka admitted with her eyes closed.

"Padmé?" Anakin asked confused, but instead of answering him, Ahsoka opened her eyes and sat up to look at him and smiled.

"I love you, you know," she said successfully distracting him from what she said for the moment. She'd explain it later.

"I'd be an idiot if I didn't notice it by now," Anakin replied with a laugh and then said seriously. "I love you too."

He kissed her intending only to peck her, but Ahsoka kept it going until she was straddling his thighs. He tried to push her away, but she wouldn't let him.

"Not here," he said against her lips. "Someone might… stang Ahsoka… we can't do this in here."

She smirked. "Have you lost your sense of adventure with age Anakin Skywalker?"

" No but…" Ahsoka silenced him as her fingers travelled south and Anakin lost all rationality.

"Forget it," he muttered and continued.

xxxxxxxxxxxx

Ami knew her mother would possibly be upset with her later, but it was better than she took a walk to get rid of the darkness than stay and let it get bigger. Sometimes she just couldn't stand her mother and the truth was, her mother couldn't stand her either. So Ami figured she was giving her mother a break by just leaving. It would be easier if her mother didn't pretend she actually cared though. If she really did, it wouldn't be that hard to find her. She never went far.

When she opened the door to leave, she jumped when she saw someone already there starting to knock.

Ami blinked and then said, "Matthew. What are you doing here?"

The older boy flushed looking uncomfortable knowing he was knocking on the door to one of the most powerful jedi after Master Luke, if not equally powerful in fact.

"I was just worried about you, wanted to make sure you were alright," Matthew muttered.

Ami shrugged. "I'm fine. Grounded according to my mother, but fine."

Matthew frowned. "If you're grounded, why are you about to leave."

"Because I never listen to my mother. And I need to go for a walk," Ami said looking back to make sure her parents were still talking in their room. "Want to come with me?"

"Sure. You shouldn't be walking alone anyway," he said as she closed the door and he walked in stride next to her.

"You seem troubled young one," Matthew said as they walked.

"Don't call me young one," Ami muttered.

"But you are young."

"When people call me that it's like their reminding me I'm still a child. But I can use the force better than most of my uncle's students," Ami said and then said haughtily, "I can probably use it better than you."

"Confident?"

Ami shrugged. "It's true. I can't stand it though. My uncle and my mother don't seem to see it. Their holding me back because I have an anger problem."

"Do you?"

"I guess. But I don't mean to get angry. It just happens and I can't stop it. It's scary," Ami admitted.

"What's scary?"

"The darkness that comes with the anger. It makes me think bad things, things that make me want to get revenge and that's not the jedi way. That's not the way of the light," Ami replied softly.

"Sounds like you're more suited to be a Sith than a Jedi then," Matthew joked.

Ami was silent for a long time before saying, "That's what I'm afraid of."

Matthew put his hand on her shoulder. "I didn't mean to make you sad. It was just a joke."

"But it's true," Ami muttered. "That's why I like Ahsoka. She understands me. She has the same darkness and she fights it. I want to fight it like she does."

Matthew paused, uncertain for a moment and then said, "It's not my place, but didn't she used to be a Sith?"

"Yeah, but she came back to the light. My grandmother used to tell me stories about it."

"That's good but it seems like she made a better Sith than a Jedi," Matthew pointed out.

"Huh?"

"I just mean don't you notice how conflicted she seems to be? My father used to work for her once and he said she was always cool and in control making her powerful and dangerous. I've seen her around here and she seems kind of weak, always conflicted and fighting her darkness, unstable even. It seems to me like she's more dangerous now. It makes her unpredictable," Matthew said grimly.

"But the darkness makes you evil and it's so easy to give in to it. Doesn't fighting it off prove how strong she really is? And she loves my grandpa. She has to keep fighting it for him," Ami pointed out.

"You're very perceptive for an eight year old," Matthew said smiling at her before adding, "But it makes you wonder if she's fighting it because she wants to or if she's doing it just because she wants to be with your grandpa."

They were silent and Ami bit her lip as she thought about what Matthew said.

"I'm not saying she's meant to be evil or anything. I'm just pointing something out. I'm glad she's not running around as a Sith lady. Where would that put you and me in the galaxy? We probably wouldn't even be alive. Now it's late. How about I take you back to your quarters?" Matthew asked and Ami nodded.

She had never had any real friends before, and she was glad she had made one in one of her uncle's students. Maybe her vacation wouldn't be as bad as it had been the last few days.

xxxxxxxxxxxx

**AN: **Talk about revising and revising. I had to get this chapter just right and I got to the point where I realized that if I kept trying to revise it, it would never be done and that it was good enough as is. It was hard making Anakin supportive of Ahsoka, but at the same time disapproving but that's where Ahsoka beating herself down help because that meant Anakin wouldn't have to heart to be completely mad at her if at all.

So we're getting closer and closer to the end and I keep dropping hints about where this is going. It's so fun to keep people guessing though. My sister is reading this and she's mad at me because she doesn't know where it's going and that's why she likes it (her and my ma can predict a storyline better than I can and I'm the writer).

Anyway, hope you enjoyed. Review Please!


	7. Part Seven

**AN:** I have a feeling a lot of people are going to hate me for the ending of this chapter, but it wasn't my fault! I didn't intend for this scene to take up a whole entire chapter but it wrote itself this way. So um… not much to say except this is the beginning of the climax of the story. There are four more chapters after this… Wait a minute. I think it might be five. I'm not sure. I'll have to go back and check. But I hope you like this.

Read, enjoy, and review!

xxxxxxxxxxxx

**Part Seven**

"_You were foolish to turn away from the dark side."_

"_Let her go!"_

"_Leia no."_

"_Ahsoka fight it. You're not a sith anymore."_

_Someone twirled a blue saber and slashed viciously to meet a red blade._

Ahsoka sucked in a sharp breath as she opened her eyes and looked around the cafeteria. This was the first time she had been out her room in days. After attacking Leia, she couldn't find it in herself to leave again, especially since she wasn't quite she what she would do to Leia. Part of her still wanted to kill the girl and it scared Ahsoka. That side of her hadn't been so strong since she denounced the dark side twelve years ago. It hadn't seemed so long ago. It made Ahsoka wonder if there was something else stirring that side of her and if it had anything to do with the vision she had. She wasn't the only one feeling that way either.

Anakin had been edgy and dark for the last few days too. It meant something was about to happen, Ahsoka couldn't be sure what.

She was only vaguely aware that Ami had come into the cafeteria with her new friend (Matthew was his name she thought) and upon spotting Ahsoka for the first time in days, Ami told him that she'd see him later and sat down across from the woman.

"Hey Ahsoka," she said grabbing a piece of bread.

"Hello Amidala," Ahsoka replied with a distant smile.

Ami smiled and then frowned. "Why do you call me Amidala instead of Ami like everyone else?"

"Would you prefer I called you Ami?"

"No. I like Amidala better. Reminds me of my grandmother. I just want to know why," Ami said to her.

Ahsoka looked at the girl and imagine Anakin sitting there instead as a eight or nine year old. According to him, Ami was just like him at that age.

"Because Ami sounds too young for you. It sounds childish on you," Ahsoka said to her. "You're a very mature child. Therefore you need a more mature name. Amidala fits that and everyone knows I'm talking about you still."

"My grandmother used to call me Ahsoka. My mother started calling me Ami."

Ahsoka crossed her arms and leaned on the table. "You really miss your grandmother don't you?"

"Yes."

"Sorry," Ahsoka said after a pause and Ami looked up.

"For what?"

Ahsoka sighed. "Your mother's right. It was my fault. I killed her."

Ami rolled her eyes. "Don't listen to my mother. She just wants someone to blame because she's upset she died. I don't blame you. In fact, grandma said you saved her."

"Did she?"

It amazed Ahsoka how Ami went from talking like an eight year old to talking like an adult. She almost seemed to have multiple personalities, just almost.

Ami nodded. "She said she would have died if grandpa had turned to the dark side and I wouldn't have wanted that or there would have been no one to take care of me."

"What do you mean there would have been no one to take care of you?" Ahsoka asked but as usual, Ami ignored the question.

"And even if you hadn't attacked her, it was her time to go and the force willed it. So I can't blame you. If anything, you gave her a painless death. She didn't even know it was happening. She was just so tired," Ami said staring off.

Ahsoka was stunned at how calm and mature Ami was talking. Anakin had mentioned the girl was a prodigy, but it sounded as though the force spoke directly through her sometimes, like she became another person a peek of the mature woman she would one day become.

"I knew she wouldn't wake up again if she went to sleep and she tried so hard to stay awake. Grandpa knew it too. So I convinced her that I was tired and pitched a fit so that grandpa would lay down with us and then she went to sleep and didn't get back up. I knew it was time for her to go. The force was calling her back, but it still hurt," Ami whispered with watery eyes. "If mom would just understand that, she wouldn't hate you so much."

As she listened to the girl, Ahsoka realized that Ami really couldn't help her bursts of anger and resentment. She understood the force in a way that most people didn't fully understand which was why she loved her grandpa so much. And it was also why she loved Padmé so much. Padmé understood Ami like she had understood Anakin.

"You thought she was your mother didn't you?" Ahsoka asked with sudden clarity to part of Ami's problem.

Ami nodded. Ahsoka stared at her intently. That certainly explained why she was so angry and distant. Any child who lost a mother figure would feel that way. But it didn't explain why Ami wasn't able to bond with Leia, her biological mother, to fill the void. In fact, her bond with her mother should more than fill the void left by her grandmother. It puzzled Ahsoka more that Ami quite obviously took to her more than she did to her own mother, even after Ahsoka attacked Leia.

"Ami. Why don't you like your mother?"

Ami was silent and Ahsoka figured she wasn't going to get it out of the girl today when she spoke.

"I don't know," she said, an obvious lie. "But I wish you were my mother."

Ahsoka nearly fell out of her seat stunned. "What?"

"You help me make the darkness go away and understand me like my grandma did. You give me an outlet to release the anger so I don't use it. It's hard not to use it when my uncle and mother think I shouldn't start my training because of it."

Ahsoka didn't say anything for a long time and simply stared at the girl who she secretly wished were her daughter being that she was the exact reflect of the man she had loved since she was teenager, who she had turned to the dark side for because of a lie, and then came back to the light when shown the truth. It wasn't something Ahsoka had ever thought about being that humans couldn't breed with non-humans (or at least that's what science said since it was so rare) added to the fact that Ahsoka had never had the time for children, never wanted to slow down for them. But now, looking at Ami, she was feeling the ache and it was slowly dawning on her that she was nearing the end of her childbearing years even though Togruta women were typically able to bear children well beyond human women as their life expectancy was longer.

"That's my fault," Ahsoka said reaching over and grabbing her hand. "Had this been the old order you have begun your training as soon as you were able to walk."

"But I still wouldn't have been able to be with my mother," she muttered.

Ahsoka raised an eyebrow in confusion. Was she talking about Padmé or Leia? Then something occurred to her.

"You aren't supposed to be talking to me, are you?" she asked Ami.

Ami shrugged. "The force says you're not dangerous so what do I care what my mother says?"

"Amidala," Ahsoka said sternly. "Just because people aren't in tune to or don't understand the force like you do doesn't mean you go and disobey your mother. As long as it isn't life threatening and the force isn't forcing you to do it, she may be wrong, but she's still your mother. She's only trying to protect you because she loves you."

Ami scoffed in disbelief and Ahsoka began to ask what was wrong with what she said but then she sensed the angry presence of Leia stomping towards them.

Ahsoka suppressed the dark side in her that still wanted to lash out at the woman and both females sitting at the table turned to her.

"Yes?" they asked.

Leia ignored Ahsoka and turned to Ami. "What are you doing?"

"Eating lunch," Ami said turned away from her mother.

"Ami," Leia said not wanting to go through this again.

"What?" Ami snapped.

"What did I tell you?"

"I don't care what you told me."

"Amidala," Ahsoka said sighing.

"Don't talk her," Leia said to Ahsoka in a cool tone. "Why was she with you?"

Ahsoka rolled her eyes deciding being sarcastic and wry about the whole situation would help quell her temper.

"Well we were obviously talking if that's what you mean. But if you mean why was she talking to me, if you must know I didn't call her over here. She came to talk to me herself and I was just getting on her about disobeying her mother," Ahsoka said with a small smile directed towards Ami who smiled back.

That simple gesture made Leia lose it. She just didn't understand what she was doing wrong. She couldn't be a bad mother. Jacen, Jaina, and Anakin didn't act this way towards her, but what if she was and because Ami was older she saw it. Would all her other children eventually act this way towards her? She just didn't get it. Leia did everything she could possibly do for Ami. She even tried to train her at home yet Ami rejected all her efforts. But then Ahsoka, the former sith lady, comes and without trying has her daughter smitten with her. It made Leia's mind go to a dark place. Ahsoka had tried to kill her mother and take Anakin away when it was apparent her father wasn't going to come her way so long as her mother had been alive. Was she trying to do the same thing to Ami and lure her towards her with her old power of seduction that Leia was positive she hadn't forgotten?

If Leia were thinking rationally, she would have come to the conclusion that such a thing was impossible when dealing with Ami. Ami could sense a game like that a mile away and even if she couldn't she was too much like her grandfather. If she didn't want to be swayed by Ahsoka's powers she could very well resist them. But all rationale went out the window for Leia, a desperate mother only trying to bond with her child who didn't seem to want it.

"I don't understand you," Leia said raising her voice at Ami.

"I know you don't," Ami replied not bothered by her mother's shouting.

"What's wrong with you? What's wrong with me? I've tried everything," Leia said her voice lowering as tears welled up in her eyes and streamed down her face. "Everything I could think of and still you don't want anything from me? Why do you go to her after she shows up again and you only met her once in your lifetime for a few minutes?"

Ahsoka carefully watched Ami's reaction and to her shock, Ami seemed indifferent to her mother's apparent breakdown. This wasn't normal. Children were innately intuitive to their mother's feelings. Something was wrong.

"Why do you even care?" Ami asked instead.

"What do you mean why do I care?" Leia said and then shook her head and wiped her tears. "You know what. Forget it. You shouldn't be able to affect me like this. We'll deal with this later. Let's go," she said reaching to grab Ami's hand.

Ami snatched it away and scooted back in her seat.

"No," she said harshly and Ahsoka wondered if she was the only one sensing the darkness that was coming off the girl.

"Ami. Now is not the time," Leia said glaring at her daughter and reaching to grab Ami's hand again.

This time Ami slapped her hand away and shouted, "I said no!"

Ahsoka stood up and walked behind Ami putting her hand on her shoulder.

"Calm down Amidala," she said in the most suggestive force tone she could muster from her time as Pesinoé, trying to be subtle about it.

"Leave my daughter alone," Leia snapped detecting the suggestion in the tone.

"Don't talk to her like that," Ami said standing up to face her mother not at all intimidated that her mother was taller than her. "Just go away!" she shouted.

"Ami!" Leia yelled too angry to be hurt by it.

"No!" Ami screamed. "Just go away! I hate you! I wish you weren't my mother!"

Ami hadn't really done anything, but Ahsoka was positive that the whole school felt the darkness that came out with those words. Leia was too stunned to stop herself from her next action. She just acted on reflex and before she knew what she was doing, she slapped Ami across left cheek, he nails scrapping the skin leaving a nasty scratch.

Leia came back to her senses when she saw the blood under her nail and reached out to comfort Ami.

"Ami, I'm sorry. I didn't mean it. It was-."

Ami put her hand on her cheek shaking with anger pulling away from her mother and Ahsoka.

"Leave me alone," she muttered with watery eyes. "I hate you. I hate you…" she choked and ran out the cafeteria before anyone could stop her.

She ran into Mara who no doubt had felt the surge of darkness. Ami only stepped back to look at her aunt who only barely was able to say, "Ami," before the girl starting running again.

Ahsoka turned back to Leia who was so pale she looked grey and staring at where Ami had just been standing.

"Leia," she said, all thoughts of being angry at the girl gone as she went to grab the girl. "Leia!"

"Don't touch me," Leia said pushing her away. "Leave me alone. Just-."

"Leia calm down," Ahsoka said firmly and Leia stopped for a moment to glare at her. "Look. Right now whatever differences and animosity there is between us doesn't matter. You hear me?"

"Yes it does," Leia said trying to push her away again, but Ahsoka was much stronger than Leia.

"Leia listen to me," Ahsoka said growing impatient.

"No. Ami-."

"Exactly," Ahsoka said. "This is about Ami and something's wrong with her and we have to find her and figure out what because she's on a fast track to the dark side right now."

"The dark side," Leia muttered getting her senses back. "She can't. She's just a child. She's just my baby."

"That's just it. Emotionally she is a child but that girl is so innately in tune with force that she knows and sees things that people three times her age wouldn't see and she doesn't know how to handle it. She's just scared Leia and she's angry at you for some reason. You've got to find her," Ahsoka said firmly.

"But she hates me," Leia muttered.

"That's why you have to find her. You've got to be her mother whether she believes it or not and talk to her before she gives in to this darkness that wants her," Ahsoka said and Leia nodded her head and wiped her face before determination settled in.

"I can't sense her," Leia said shaking her head.

"Neither can I," Ahsoka said. "We're going to have to do this the old fashioned way. I'll go get Anakin. Mara, you go get Luke."

"I'll get Han and the children," Leia said and the two women took off in opposite directions.

Mara started to leave but then noticed the hushed murmurs of the pupils and crossed her arms.

"As if your family doesn't have domestic issues," she snapped at all of them. "Don't act like that. They don't have Skywalker blood running through their veins. Now stop sitting on your asses and gossiping and look for Ami."

"But Master Skywalker," one of them said. "We have classes-."

"They're cancelled for the day. You were all sitting around here listening into something that had nothing to do with you so I know you felt the same darkness I did. We're going to need all the help we can get. Go look for Ami and spread the word," Mara demanded and the students took no time in abandoning what they were doing to go look for the missing girl.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

**AN**: I think I'm going to get out of here before angry mobs come at me with torches and pitchforks. So yeah… I had to be careful with Ami in this one as I was really trying to be careful of her personality. She's a problem child and all problem children have some of the same problems, but I wanted this problem child to know she had a problem. In any case, I dropped a huge hint in this chapter on what's going on with her and if you didn't catch it… well, there's nothing I can do except tell you to keep reading.

Hope you enjoyed. Review Please!


	8. Part Eight

**AN: **I'm a little perturbed at my sibs right now... I've called them every name for spoiled, ungrateful, and too smart for their own good as I could come up with. They're lucky they have something to eat even if they don't like oatmeal. Some children don't...

Anyway, when I wrote this I didn't think I'd get so many comments about the human compatibility thing. So I'll put it this way. A pregnant Ahsoka just didn't fit into the story or this AU. So when I found that tidbit on wookiepedia, it gave me a reason. I know some of you brought up the clone wars episode with the clone that left his duty and married a twi'lek and had to kids, but I did my research on that too. There's a lot of debate on whether they were his or not and if we think about it, I doubt it because the clone wars only lasted roughly three years and those kids were a little older than that. The clones didn't come into play until the beginning of those three years. So if we look at the time frame, the children wouldn't have been that old.

My point? There's no clear cut fact on it so in this story I decided it wouldn't happen… That's not to say I won't use the idea in another story but I won't spoil the fun (winks).

Okay, enough banter. I just wanted to clear that up for people. Read, enjoy, and review!

xxxxxxxxxxxxx

**Part Eight**

The entire Skywalker family sat gathered in Leia and Han's temporary quarters, a solemn mood having fallen over the family. Mara had forced all the children into bed in her and Luke's quarters earlier and Han was trying to comfort a near hysterical Leia in the back room. Anakin paced nervously near the door while Ahsoka leaned on the wall with her arms crossed more concerned about the little girl who was missing than she thought she should have been. She was trying not to show it in vain as her lekku were turning colors.

Han came out the back room with a sigh.

"Is she okay?" Mara asked pouring herself some coffee and offering everyone else some.

Ahsoka shook her head and instead raided the cabinets until she found what she was looking for. She grabbed a glass out the cabinet and poured the alcoholic beverage inside before setting the bottle down and downing it in one gulp.

"You're a jedi," Luke said with a smirk. "You shouldn't be drinking alcohol to cope. It dulls you senses."

Ahsoka turned a cold stare on Luke. "I can sense every creature lurking in the forest around here because I've stretched them so much to find Ami. I think I'm entitled to have something to dull them a little."

Mara threw out her coffee in agreement with Ahsoka and grabbed some ice before pouring herself some of it, but she sipped on it rather than drink it in one gulp like Ahsoka.

"How could this have happened?" Han asked. "I don't get why she acts this way. Why is Ami so angry?"

Anakin stopped pacing and looked at Han. "She misses Padmé."

"Don't we all?" Luke asked.

Ahsoka put down her glass and gave all of them a wry look.

"How long was Ami living with Padmé?"

Han shrugged. "From the time she was a few weeks old until Padmé died when Ami was about three years or so."

"Exactly," Ahsoka said bluntly. "Did it ever occur to you that Ami was under the impression that Padmé was her mother?"

Everyone stopped and mulled it over in their heads.

"That makes sense," Anakin replied. "Me and Padmé were all Ami knew for a while. Sure Leia always came to see her, but it was us she was with all the time."

"So Padmé died. Anakin leaves and she feels there's no one for her to turn to and can't cope," Han added.

"But that doesn't explain why she didn't latch on to Leia to fill the void," Anakin replied.

Ahsoka went back over her conversation with Ami and frowned. "Unless for some reason she thinks Leia hates her."

"Why would she think that?" Luke asked.

"I don't know?" Ahsoka said shrugging. "She said she hated Leia and wished she weren't her mother."

"No wonder Leia's so upset," Luke said.

"Must be horrible for a child to make you think you're a bad mom," Ahsoka muttered. "Of course I wouldn't know…"

Mara, who was still standing next to Ahsoka, gave her an odd look, but didn't say anything about it. Anakin who was still pacing suddenly stopped, a dark look coming over his face.

"What's wrong?" Han asked noticing the change.

Anakin shook his head. "Something's not right. Something's about to happen."

"Okay, I'm assuming this is bad, but bad as in bad for us or bad as in tilt the balance of the force bad?" Han asked.

"Luke, come with me," Anakin said. "Han, go check on the children. Ahsoka and Mara stay here with Leia."

"Are you sure about that?" Ahsoka asked. "Maybe I should-."

"Yes," Anakin said sure. "Luke, come with me."

xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Ami hadn't gone far. She had done so on purpose knowing that her family would automatically think that she had run as far away as she could. But she hadn't. She was only hiding in one of the smuggling compartments of the _Falcon_. No one would find her there. She sat with her head in her knees, eyes closed trying to make the darkness go away.

She heard something above her, rolling.

"You think she's in here?" someone asked.

Beeps and whistles were the response.

"I'm sorry. I don't know what you said," a beep. "Hide and seek?"

The cover to the compartment came up and Ami sighed.

"How did you find me here Matthew?" she asked.

The boy grinned. "Artoo helped me. Need some help getting out of there?"

"No," Ami muttered. "Just leave me alone."

Matthew frowned. "What's wrong?"

Ami shook her head. "The darkness keeps coming back. It won't go away," she whispered trying not to cry. "I hate it. I hate the darkness and no one here understands it except maybe Ahsoka. But I can't tell Ahsoka because she doesn't want to upset my mother. I understand that. I just want it to go away. It scares me. I can't control it. Sometimes it makes me do and say things I don't mean."

"What do you mean?" Matthew asked.

"I told my mother I hate her. I don't hate her. I just…" Ami didn't finish. "I'm going to run away."

"What?" Matthew said and Artoo said something along the same lines in binary.

"I can't stay here. I'm dangerous. I don't want to hurt anyone," Ami said standing up as she glared at her friend. "And you're not going to tell anyone."

"But Ami," Matthew said watching the girl climb out the compartment. "You can't just run away by yourself. You don't even have a ship."

"There's a secret base in the forest just in case we ever need to evacuate the temple. You can get to it from underground, but I know how to get from above."

"Why would you need to evacuate?" Matthew asked.

Ami shrugged. "It was my grandpa's idea. I think because he's a little paranoid about another jedi purge or at least that's what Uncle Luke told me. They didn't have a way to get everybody out in the old temple in case of an attack."

Matthew looked hesitant before finally saying, "I'm going with you."

Ami looked at his surprised. "What?"

"You're my friend. I'm not going to let you go alone," he declared. "Besides, maybe I can help you learn how to control your darkness. If it won't go away, the least we can do is use it as a tool to our advantage."

"If that's what you want," Ami said starting to walk past him to sneak outside the temple. She stopped giving him a curious look. "You look older…"

"Older?"

"Yeah," Ami said and then shook her head. She didn't have time for this. She had to get out of the temple before anyone noticed she was going.

"Wait. What about him?"

Ami looked at Artoo who glanced at Ami and the Matthew before trying to zip away. Ami managed to stay him with the force, something she had learned from the many times her mother used it to keep the twins in one spot. Then she pulled a protesting Artoo to her and said, "Sorry about this Artoo. I really am," and dropped him in the smuggling compartment on his side.

Ami put the covering on wincing as Artoo fussed from inside.

"Sorry buddy, but I can't let you tell anyone," Ami said to him as she left the Falcon. But it occurred to her that she had to tell someone, someone who wouldn't tell before she could leave and so she decided to visit Mé who was no doubt sleep in her room by now.

Ami led Matthew around the Praxeum to the window that went to Mé's room. She knocked on the window and whispered, "Mé!:

Mé stayed sound asleep and so Ami knocked harder. "Mé!"

Mé sat up in bed obviously a little frightened before turning to her window and frowning in confusion. Then her face lit up.

"Ami!" she said and jumped out the bed to open the window.

Ami climbed inside and Matthew followed her. Mé frowned.

"Who's he?" she asked.

"That's Matthew," Ami said simply to her cousin. "Why are Jacen, Jaina, and Anakin here?"

"Because the grown-ups are looking for you," Mé said bluntly moving her strawberry-blonde hair out her face. "Aunt Leia's really worried about you."

"Yeah," Ami said shrugging a little at the mention of her mother. "Listen. I've got to tell you something."

Mé nodded as sat on her bed.

"I'm leaving here," she said.

Mé frowned and Ami could tell the understanding hadn't clicked yet.

"You're going back to Coruscant?"

Ami shook her head.

"Naboo?"

Ami shook her head again before saying, "I'm running away for good. I'm not coming back."

Mé stared at Ami for a moment and even through the force Ami couldn't gauge how she was feeling until she stood up with her hands on her hips in a pose like her mother's and said, "You can't!"

"I don't belong here Mé. I used the dark side and the longer I stay here, the worse it gets."

"But Ami," Mé said on a whining tone. "Your momma's going to miss you. She was really worried about you and she kept saying she was sorry for hitting you. Ami you can't just leave."

"It's better this way. I'm doing mom a favor. Trust me," Ami muttered. "And I won't be alone. Matthew's coming with me. Don't tell anyone until tomorrow. By then I'll be long gone."

Mé looked at Matthew, a frown coming to her lips.

"Ami. I don't know if you should-."

Matthew cut Mé off.

"If we're going, we need to go now Ami," he said and Ami nodded.

Matthew started to climb back out the window and Ami took one last look at Mé before starting to do the same.

"Hold on a minute," Mé said grabbing her red robe and her red dancer type slippers.

"What are you doing?" Ami asked

"I'm going with you," Mé declared.

Ami rolled her eyes. "Mé!"

"I'm not going to leave with you, but I'm just going to make sure you get away okay. Mommy and Daddy won't even know I'm gone," Mé said with a smile. "And if you make me stay, I'll go and tell the grown-ups right now."

Ami groaned and looked at Matthew who only shrugged.

"Whatever. Come on and hurry up."

xxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Luke, bring up the information on all the students that are here in the Praxeum," Anakin said when they got to their archive room. It wasn't as complete and comprehensive as the one that had been in the old jedi temple, but it was good enough.

"For what?" Luke asked.

"Just do it. Do you have pictures?" Anakin asked.

"Yeah," Luke said bringing up the data. "Why?"

"I sense the dark side Luke and not the stuff Ami was pulling. This is bigger," Anakin said searching through the databases.

"But dad, most of the students here aren't older than sixteen… Well except for Tionne and Kam, but I know it's not them."

"Ahsoka was only going on seventeen when she turned," Anakin pointed out and proceeded to ignore anymore protest Luke might have had.

"But still. The Sith order is gone. Who else-?"

"The sith order isn't completely gone Luke."

"What? But-."

"What do you think Ahsoka was doing those all those years Luke? In fact, who do you think sent Tionne and Ram to find you?" Anakin asked.

"That was her?"

"Palpatine was in touch with dark side users all over the galaxy, Luke, and Ahsoka spent those years taking them out. Why do you think that there's been no one to rise up against us when we decided to start the new order again?"

"Skywalker luck?" Luke said sheepishly.

Anakin shook his head. "Palpatine even had clones of himself on Byss. Ahsoka said that was a massive undertaking. It was a fortress and heavily armed. She and her ladies had to infiltrate the place and take it down from the inside."

"Where are they anyway?" Luke asked as his father went over the data.

"Running some refugee housing. Ahsoka only has two that stayed with her," Anakin said pausing. "Who's this Luke?"

"Oh Matthew? He's new. Came here a few weeks ago wanting to learn about the force," Luke replied.

"Isn't he the boy that Ami's been hanging around?" Anakin asked.

"Yeah. Why?" Luke asked. Anakin downloaded his data. "What are you doing?"

"Seeing if Ahsoka recognizes him. There's something about him…" Anakin said not waiting for Luke to follow him as he left the room.

xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Ahsoka was anxious and she didn't know why. But it would certainly help if Mara stopped looking at her with inquisitive eyes every five seconds. Finally she had enough.

"Do you want something?" she snapped.

Ahsoka hadn't really talked to Mara since she was a hand for the empire and she had frozen the girl in carbonite and even then it wasn't on good terms. So there was not telling why Mara was looking at her that way.

Mara didn't say anything for a while, obviously trying to formulate what she wanted to say which meant it was definitely something talk about. Usually Mara said things exactly how they came to her mind and that was that, unless she was afraid Ahsoka would try to freeze her in carbonite again or something equally tormenting…

"Since when have you wanted a child?" she finally asked taking Ahsoka by surprise. She nearly dropped her wine glass.

"What?"

"I can hear it in your voice, that longing tone. I've used it before. Me and Luke want to have another baby, but it's just not happening and even though I'm grateful for Mé, it would be nice to have one more," Mara said with a smile. "But you had the same tone when you spoke about Ami. You sounded the same way when you spoke to Leia about how concerned you were about Ami. I think she can feel it too, which is why she's afraid of you trying to take Ami from her."

"I wouldn't do that… I wouldn't try to take a child from their mother. I may have a few dark tendencies left over and can act a little cruel but I'm not that cruel. In that respect I never agreed with the old order."

Both she and Mara left unspoken that Pesinoé would have had no qualms taking a child from their parents.

"But you do want one," Mara stated. It was fact to her now.

"That's ridiculous," Ahsoka said going to sit on the couch. "Anakin's knocking on sixty and the twins are adults now. And I'm not that old but I'm close."

"It wouldn't be the weirdest thing to happen to this family and people have done it before," said Mara. "Besides, you've got a few more years if you go by torgruta standards."

"And even if that were the case, humans and torgruta aren't compatible reproductive-wise," Ahsoka muttered. "Well it's extremely rare anyway."

Mara looked at Ahsoka in annoyance and the older woman finally groaned.

"Is it that obvious?"

"No," Mara said. "Since when?"

"It's never crossed my mind until about a month ago. Until then I never thought I was the mothering type. I mean I'm a former Sith lady. And I sure as hell wasn't thinking about it when I was a Sith. The closest thing I had to it was my ladies and their going off doing their own thing now."

Mara smirked. "Why do you act like you feel guilty for feeling that way?"

"Because it's weird for me," Ahsoka admitted. "Children were never part of my plan, not even wanted them when I was pining for Anakin as a teenager."

"You liked Leia when she was younger though. I seem to remember someone shipping me off to Jabba for hurting the princess," said Mara.

Ahsoka smiled. "You deserved it. You were a rotten little skank back then."

"Touché," Mara gave and then said, "But Ami's different isn't she?"

Ahsoka started to deny it when she felt Leia coming in the room with them.

"What's that?" she asked of the bottle Ahsoka was holding.

"Sensory suppressant," Ahsoka muttered.

She wasn't exactly sure if Leia heard her or not, but the empress did grab the bottle and pour herself some in a glass. Mara was in shock. Leia never drank unless it was a special occasion that called for it.

"Leia," she said trying to take the cup from her. This could lead her down a dangerous road. It was always the good people who had never had a lick of alcohol in their lives that became alcoholic when tragedy struck and they turned to the drink for comfort liking how it took away worries.

"Leave me alone," she said snatching her hand away from Mara but managing to drop half the contents in her efforts.

Ahsoka however simply grasped the cup with the force and brought it over to her setting it on the coffee table.

"What did you do that for?" Leia whined more than she said it.

"Because this isn't you," Ahsoka said.

"Why do you care?"

"I've always had a soft spot for you," Ahsoka said raising her eyebrows. "Remember?"

Leia smiled a little. "I guess. But it still doesn't change anything."

"And you were always so stubborn," Ahsoka said scowling. "I still don't understand what I've done this time… well besides attack you. But that was your fault."

"You've done enough," Leia said sitting down.

Ahsoka started to reply but then she felt something, like the tides in the force shifting. She tapped into the force and what she felt surprised her. It was the shroud of the dark side.

"_Let her go!"_

"_You use the dark side."_

"_It is your destiny."_

"_Ami help me!"_

"_Matthew, stop it!"_

Ahsoka snapped out of her vision. What did they mean? Matthew… why would Ami's friend be in it?

"Leia. Who's that boy Ami's been spending time with?"

"Matthew?" Leia said not looking at Ahsoka. "He's a nice boy. He's one of Luke's new students that came here to learn about the force a few weeks ago."

"How old is he?"

"Sixteen I think," Leia said. "Why?"

"It doesn't bother you that Ami's spending time with a guy twice her age?" Mara asked.

"Ami has always gotten along better with people older than her. I didn't think much of it," Leia said shrugging.

"Matthew," Ahsoka muttered remembering his face from the cafeteria. He had looked familiar to her. She didn't know what it was but she had a feeling they had to move. "Let's go."

"Where?" Leia asked.

"Something isn't right about all this," Ahsoka said. "We need to check on the children."

"Why?"

"Just trust me?" Ahsoka said leaving the apartment.

Mara and Leia exchanged a look before following her out not exactly knowing what to expect.

xxxxxxxxxxxxx

**AN**: After staying up until two for the past week, I'm really tired. Anywho, I looked at my calendar and noticed the Christmas holidays are coming up. My family doesn't celebrate the holiday, but I'm aware that a lot of my readers do and they go out of town, take vacations and whatnot. So, I'm thinking about not updating next week with this thought in mind. So you all can give me your opinion on it and after Friday, I can take a week break. It's up to you and if I don't get an opinion on it, I'll make the decision and take the week off and come back after the holidays. And if my sister happens to read this, no. Your opinion doesn't count.

Hope you enjoyed. Review please!


	9. Part Nine

**AN: **So I decided to update early… Yeah. See, I really need to finish this because it would be a pain to have to update this story, Light of Liberty Arc III and Sanctioned by an angel at one time… So this should be done by Saturday.

So for you real hardcore Anakin/Ahsoka fans, read Sanctioned by an Angel, especially in light of… well, you'll see. You'll adore it. I promise and Leia's just so cute and innocent… Maybe.

So not much to say except I enjoyed writing this… I'll elaborate at the end.

Read, enjoy, and review!

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

**Part Nine**

"Ami," Mé said to her cousin determined to convince her to turn around before she actually went through with leaving. "Are you sure about this? Won't you be scared?"

"Don't ask me again Mé. You won't change my mind," Ami said continuing to lead the way to the ships hidden in the forest.

"Ami!" Mé said stomping her foot on the moist ground.

"So how far Ami?" Matthew asked.

Ami stopped. "The waterfall is that way, so the ruins are in the opposite direction," she said continuing towards the ships.

"Ruins!" Mé said.

"Relax. I've been to them before. There's nothing to be afraid of," Ami said continuing.

Nonetheless, Mé walked much closer to Ami than she had been before.

"Are you sure she's going to make it back okay on her own?" Matthew asked.

"She better," Ami muttered and then Mé screamed when she ran into a rainbow colored furry thing.

"Get away," she said.

Matthew looked up and rolled his eyes at the monkey-like creature. "It's just a woolamander. Maybe you should go back Mé."

"I'm fine," Mé said and pointed ahead. "Look. There's the temple."

"Then that means my statement was on cue," Matthew said. "It's time for you to go back."

Mé glared at Matthew. "Stay out of this you," she said pulling Ami away from Matthew to talk to her privately.

"Ami," Mé said nervously, eyes darting to Matthew for a moment. "You can't leave with Matthew. I think you'd be better going alone."

"And then what?" Ami snapped. "Everyone would look at me like a child. I need him. Besides, he's not afraid of the dark side, which means he's not afraid of me. We'll help each other."

"Ami," Mé said. "When I was back there and looked at his face I had… I had a dream."

"A vision you mean?" Ami asked.

Mé shrugged. "It was something dark. I think he's trying to trick you Ami. We have to go back."

Ami wasn't sure whether she should listen to Mé or not. She overheard her parents saying that Mé wasn't exactly gifted in the force, lots of potential, but Mé just wasn't that interested in learning the way of the Jedi. She liked learning how to use weapons and spy like her mother. But something she did have was the gift of premonition which her father said that once she learned how to control would make her formidable opponent. However as it was, Mé couldn't control her premonitions, so they were never clear enough to give her a full picture.

"Mé, you can't even control your visions. How do I know you weren't seeing us flying in space or something," Ami asked.

"I have a bad feeling about this Ami. Please! Why do you have to run away? You seem to like Ahsoka. If you want to run away sneak on grandpa's ship when they leave but please don't go with Matthew. There's a bad thing," Mé said with tears in her eyes.

Ami frowned and snatched her arm from Mé.

"Why is it that every time I make a friend everyone has something to say about it," she snapped.

"Because all your friends are dark. You like the darkness." Mé said simply.

Ami sighed. For a seven year old Mé could sure be annoying with some of the things she said. Ami hated the darkness.

"Just go back to the Praxeum Mé. Can you find your way back?"

Mé nodded and sighed as she turned on her heal to go back.

Ami went toward Matthew and sighed.

"No one understands Matthew," she muttered.

"I understand Ami. I'll help you control your darkness the best way I can. The dark side is nothing to be afraid of," Matthew said putting a comforting hand on her back.

Ami walked with him towards the temple.

_Ahsoka._

Ami stopped.

"What's wrong?"

Ami blinked. "It's nothing," she said continuing to walk.

_Ahsoka go back. You don't have to be afraid of the darkness._

Ami stopped again. She knew that voice.

"Grandma," she muttered and then the world melted around her into nothing but black space. She looked around. Where had everything gone?

"Ahsoka baby."

Ami whirled around and turned to see someone she hadn't laid eyes on in five years, mainly because she was supposed to be dead.

"Grandma," she said in disbelief and the spirit nodded before Ami ran to her and wrapped her arms around her.

"Hello little one."

"Grandma," Ami said burying her face in the woman's stomach taking in her scent. "I missed you."

"I know sweetheart."

"Why haven't you come before now?"

Padmé sighed as she bent down to get eye to eye with Ami.

"Because it would have made it difficult for you to let me go Ami, more difficult than it was," Padmé added seeing Ami getting ready to argue.

"It would have been better if you had come," Ami said.

"No it would've made it harder for you to bond with your mother. But it looks like that happened anyway," Padmé said in a sad tone.

"Why should I bond with my mother? Not like she wants me around," Ami muttered.

Padmé shook her head. "Ahsoka, that's not true. You mother loves you very much. But you're not giving her a chance and she doesn't understand what you're going through."

"She should. She's supposed to be my mother."

"Ahsoka, I know you think that because Leia's your mother she should automatically know what you're feeling. But she can't read you if you always close yourself off and block yourself from her," Padmé pointed out.

"But… I'm scared. I don't want them to see the darkness. They don't get it," Ami said putting her head on Padmé's shoulder.

"But they'd try to help you. And you're wrong. There is someone who understands how you're feeling."

"Ahsoka?" Ami whispered and Padmé nodded. "But my mother hates her."

"She's just having a hard time letting go of the past. But you can help her do that if you open up to Leia," Padmé advised. "Ahsoka, running away isn't the answer. You have to go back."

"But-."

"It'll always come back if you don't deal with it sweetheart, and if you don't believe me talk to Ahsoka. She's knows that better than anyone. She ran away only to have to come back and have to face Ani, face the darkness," Padmé said pulling Ami away from her. "You can't let your fear guide your actions. That's part of what being a Jedi is all about. Overcome your fears and everything will work out fine."

Padmé started to fade away.

"Wait," Ami said putting her hands on Padmé face. "Don't go mama. I love you."

"I love you too little one. I'll always be with you," she said and faded away completely.

The world melted back into view and Ami became aware of the fact that she was still walking towards the ruins with Matthew.

_Running away isn't the answer._

Ami stopped walking and turned to look at a retreating Mé.

"Mé wait," she said starting to go after her.

"What are you doing?" Matthew asked startled.

"I can't do it. I'm going back," Ami said starting to go after Mé who had stopped and was looking at the two in confusion.

"What are you talking about? We're almost there," Matthew asked.

Ami shook her head, her grandmother's words coming back to her. "I… I can't leave. I have to stay," she said heading toward Mé. "I'm sorry I dragged you all this way for nothing. Let's go back. Maybe my uncle will reward you somehow."

"No," Matthew said grabbing Ami's arm and pulling her back roughly. "We're leaving now."

Ami snatched her arm back. "Why do you want to leave so bad? What's wrong with you?"

"The question is what's wrong with you. They're not going to help you. Can't you see the dark side is your destiny?"

Ami frowned. Matthew wasn't at all sounding like a Jedi.

"What are you talking about?" Ami asked stepping back from him.

"You almost had it my young friend. You were beginning to free yourself from the restraints of the Jedi, even without my help. I can show you a different way, where we don't teach you to abandon your anger or darkness. Come with me and I can teach you," Matthew urged.

"Teach me what?" Ami asked.

"The dark side of the force," Matthew said calmly.

"Who are you?" Ami snapped.

"An old friend of the family," Matthew replied.

Ami started to run away but Matthew grabbed her with the intention of forcing Ami in the other direction.

"Let me go!" Ami said snatching her arm back and falling on the ground in the process.

"I don't have time for this," Matthew muttered this time trying to grab Ami's arm again, intent on dragging her if he had to.

"Leave her alone!" Mé yelled and threw a hard smooth stone at Matthew's head with deadly accuracy.

Matthew fell back holding his head and Ami ran over to Mé.

"Good aim," Ami muttered to her as they looked at the fallen boy.

"Mom's been helping me practice," Mé said.

Ami looked back at Matthew who was starting to get back up. "Come on we have to get back to the Praxeum."

Ami and Mé wasted no time trying to put as much distance between them and Matthew as they could but it was to no avail. Ami sensed the boy come up behind him long before Mé did, if she ever did, and moved out the way. But Mé wasn't so fortunate as Matthew had grabbed her by her small neck and lifted her off the ground.

"Leave her alone!"

"Not until you accept your destiny," Matthew shouted.

"No! You use the dark side," Ami shouted.

"Then your cousin dies," he said.

"Ami, help me," Mé said terrified.

"Let her go!" Ami said starting to charge at Matthew but when he only tightened his grip on Mé she stopped. She froze and cried out, "Matthew, stop it!"

"Ami!" Mé choked.

"No," Ami said. "Okay. I'll go with you. Just let her go."

Matthew did let her go, but not the way Ami want him to. He threw her off to the side of his. Mé laid on the ground moaning.

"Mé," Ami said running to her.

"I'm okay," Mé said trying to sitting up and abruptly falling back down as she had a coughing fit.

"No you aren't," Ami said. "Come on."

"You're not going anywhere Ami," Matthew said. "You will come with me now. And I'll show you your true potential."

Ami glared at him and stood up. "I'll show you my true potential," she said and with a speed and power that surprised the boy, forced pushed him. If it hadn't been for the tree that stopped his throw, Ami was positive he would be half a kilometer away.

She stepped over Mé to meet Matthew as he almost literally flew toward her and proceeded to slam her into a tree.

"You leave her alone," Mé said taking out a blaster and shooting at Matthew who only summoned the blaster from her and aimed it at her.

Ami kicked Matthew in his distraction and snatched the blaster back before force pushing him back aiming at him as he landed neatly on his feet.

"You had a blaster! Where in the world were you hiding it and why didn't you take it out before?" Ami asked aiming it clumsily at the boy cursing the fact that her mother kept them far out of her children's reach, not even bothering to show them how to use one.

"I have two robes. One is for every day and one is the one I put on in emergencies. Mom added a secret pocket to it to conceal a blaster," Mé explained rubbing her sore neck.

"Aunt Mara has got to show me that stuff one day," Ami said pulling the trigger to the blaster as many times as she could.

To her surprise though, Matthew took out a red light saber and blocked the bolts with an accuracy that no padawan his age just coming to the Praxeum should have. Ami herself wasn't even that talented.

Ami screamed and dropped her blaster when one of the deflected bolts hit her in the hand. A second hit her in her leg. She collapsed on the ground and held the stinging part of her leg.

Mé crawled over to her and struggled to help Ami get up so they could get away, but Matthew was on her with the light saber pointed at her chest.

"Leave her alone," Ami said.

"She's too much trouble to me to be left alive," Matthew said.

"She's only seven," Ami snapped, not that she was much older, but she wasn't about to let anyone kill her cousin.

"It's what she'll grow into that troubles me," Matthew replied and got ready to pierce Mé's chest.

"No!"

Xxxxxxxxxxxx

"Where are we going?" Leia asked Ahsoka as she led then down the hall.

"Do you have anywhere outside the ground of the Praxeum that's for an emergency escape or something?" Ahsoka asked.

"Yes. It's at one of the ruins but why-?"

Ahsoka cut Mara off saying, "Ami's trying to leave the planet and I think Matthew is with her."

"Why would you think that?" Mara asked.

"I've been having visions… They're confusing, but something's not right with that Matthew boy," Ahsoka said.

"And running away is exactly Ami's style. She would try to get off the planet after something like that," Leia said knowingly.

"Then follow me," Mara said. "There's a passage under the Praxeum to get there."

"Ami didn't want to be found so she wouldn't risk going back in the Praxeum," Leia said. "She went through the forest."

"But going underground is quicker."

"Then you go underground and we'll cut her off both ways," Ahsoka said. "Get Luke and Anakin while you're at it."

Ahsoka and Leia ran out the temple and through the forest toward the ruins where the escape ships were.

"Ami!" Leia yelled as the two slowed down so as not to run into anything malicious in the forest. "Ami!"

"Leave her alone!" they heard Ami's voice clearly say to someone.

"Amidala," Ahsoka said as both she and Leia ran to where they heard the girl. It's wasn't just her voice they were following though. Mé was with her, as well as something dark.

"No!"

Leia's light saber was lit without thought and she jumped between the two children and the boy threatening to kill them, blocking the red saber with her own blue one.

"Don't you know it's not wise to get in the way of a mother protecting her child?" Leia snapped.

"You okay?" Ahsoka said bending down behind Leia to the two terrified girls.

"Ahsoka," Ami said trying to ignore the pain in her hand and leg. "Matthew… He knows the dark side. But Mé came with us and got in the way. He tried to kill her. He wanted me to…"

"He wanted you to be his new apprentice," Ahsoka said turned her head slowly toward the boy.

"What?" Ami asked.

Ahsoka stood up next to Leia lighting her own green light saber. "That's no padawan learner."

"It's been a long time my old friend," Matthew said to Ahsoka.

"It hasn't been long enough. And we're not friends… Palpatine."

"Palpatine?" Leia said surprised and then looked at the boy. "But he's dead and this is just a boy."

"Don't let his appearance fool you," Ahsoka said glaring at him. "That's Palpatine. He had clones of himself made before he died so he could be reborn in them. I just happened to stumble upon the reports for it and infiltrated the base before destroying it."

"What? How…?" Leia was stunned.

"It wasn't easy. He had it protected by part of the fleet. Anyway, I thought I got them all, but I always had this feeling that I might have missed one somewhere," Ahsoka said.

"I guess this proves you did," Leia said as Palpatine pulled his light saber back.

"You shouldn't have come here," Palpatine said and then smiled. "But no matter. I'll kill you first. Ami just won't be able to participate in my revenge against the Skywalker family."

"Over our dead body," Ahsoka hissed.

"So be it," Palpatine said and attack Ahsoka and Leia.

Palpatine hummed. "The dark side is still strong inside you my old apprentice," he said to Ahsoka. "Yet you fight it and it makes you weaker. You were foolish to abandon your destiny, the dark side."

"No," Ahsoka said twisting Palpatine's red light saber from Leia's shoulder. "I was a fool to turn to it in the first place. And I'll die before I let you twist Ami like that."

"And you will," Palpatine declared.

"Not if I help her," Leia said, her saber clashing loudly with Palpatine's.

Ahsoka took the opportunity to strike Palpatine from behind but the man force pushed her away.

Mé pulled Ami to her feet and leaned her against her.

"We have to get out of here," Mé said but Ami wasn't even trying to move, her gaze fixed on the duel taking place in front of her.

"Wow…" she said looking at them. It was one thing to see a sparring match but it was a completely different thing to see a real duel.

"Come on Ami!" Mé said trying to pull her cousin away.

"I…" Ami couldn't find words for how beautiful the scene before her was. Sure the long-thought-dead Sith master was trying to kill her mother and Ahsoka to get to her, but Ahsoka and her mother made a great team. She had never seen her mother move like that. Suddenly she wondered why her mother hated Ahsoka even more. They had a similar fighting style. Something like a student and teacher…

"Ami!" Mé shouted.

"Wha-?" Ami screamed when she saw the lightning coming towards her from Palpatine.

"Ami!" Leia yelled and leapt from where she was to deflect the attack.

"Mom," Ami whispered.

"Ami get away. Go find your grandpa. He's the only one strong enough to take Palpatine," Leia said. "Especially in this younger body. I can't hold him off for long."

"But mom," Ami said forgetting that she was mad at her mother earlier.

"Just do it Ami!" Leia snapped and Ami nodded grabbing Mé's hand and limping away from them.

"You're not going anywhere," Palpatine snarled overpowering Leia, the lightning sending her flying into a nearby rock.

The two girls screamed as Palpatine appeared in from of them.

"Run away, Mé," Ami said pushing Mé the other way. "He wants me."

"No," Mé said taking out a knife (Ami really had to ask her aunt Mara how to do all that stuff) and stabbing an unsuspecting Palpatine in the shoulder. He growled and grabbed Mé's wrist throwing her aside.

"You leave her alone!" Ami screamed at him causing a ripple in the force for the second time that day as a shock wave went through the area that knocked Palpatine off his feet. Ami then went for the light saber in his hand, but even still recovering from the shock of the shockwave, Palpatine in his young body was stronger than her.

He threw her to the ground and stood up advancing on her with his light saber raised. Ami tried to crawl away from him afraid that now he was trying to kill her.

"You're too much trouble," he said.

"If you kill me, you can't make me your apprentice," Ami said smugly trying to delay him as long as she could. She had to give Ahsoka and her mother a chance to recover.

"I don't plan to kill you, but this will be your first lesson my apprentice. Obey your master," he said and snatched her hand up by the wrist.

"Let me go you creep!" Ami yelled realizing he was about to cut off her hand.

Palpatine ignoring her and Ami winced when she felt the heat of the light saber teasing her flesh.

"Stop right there Sidious."

Both Ami and Palpatine turned to look at the torgruta woman who was back from wherever Palpatine had thrown her. Ami looked over at her and paused. She sensed the dark side.

"Hm… I sense the dark side in you my former apprentice. It seems you haven't abandoned it as you so claim," Palpatine said letting go of Ami burnt, but thankfully still attached, wrist.

"Oh believe me. For the most part I have," Ahsoka said twirling her lightsaber. "But I'll gladly take it back up again if it means sending you back to the grave permanently."

xxxxxxxxxxxxx

**AN:** This reminded me of a time me and a friend ganged up on a guy that was twice our age (we were just playing) and though it was hopeless from the beginning, we kept trying to take him out and wouldn't give up much to his annoyance. I hadn't realized I had the experience until I thought about some of my younger years and realized that I had a similar, but playful experience at the school I went to. Sixteen years old seemed so old and intimidating back then…

Anywho, since this is another cliffy, I think I've overstayed my welcome. So I'll run and hide under my bed as you all raid my house with torches and pitchforks.

Hope you enjoyed. Review Please! (runs away with laptop in hand).


	10. Part Ten

**AN:** Okay, so there's one more chapter after this one and I can call it complete. I really am on a roll with completing my fics. This will be… six or seven done after the next chapter. There's so much to write in this universe so I figure next year in the summer, I'll backtrack a few years and go in depth to Luke and Mara's relationship since I kind of left a loose end with it. But I'm working on other things so it's an idea I'll put in my drawer and pick up later.

Alright, enough talking. Read, Enjoy, and Review!

xxxxxxxxxxxxx

**Part Ten**

She really had tried to stop the darkness when it reared its ugly head. But it had been so long since she had touched it, and right then, she needed the rush of power that came with the dark side, that gave her focus on the task at hand. Therefore, she grabbed onto it when she got the chance, but she didn't let it consume her. It was… refreshing. Still, she wasn't really Pesinoé… but Ahsoka was darn close to saying to hell with her denouncement of the dark side.

"Stop right there Sidious," she said to the sith master, who was threatening to cut off Ami's hand.

He and Ami slowly turned to look at her. Sidious smiled when he looked at her and let Ami go.

"Hm… I sense the dark side in you my former apprentice. It seems you haven't abandoned it as you so claim," he said.

"Oh believe me. For the most part I have," Ahsoka said twirling her lightsaber. "But I'll gladly take it back up again if it means defeating you again."

She charged at Palpatine with a lady-like grace she hadn't used in her duels in years.

Ami would be a fool if she said that this new dark Ahsoka didn't scare her. But it did because it showed her what she might be like if she let the darkness take over. On the surface, she looked like a woman who was in control and took charge, but with the force she saw the cruelty and harshness of it.

Logically, Ami should have been getting as far away from this as she could, but she couldn't leave Ahsoka like this.

"Ahsoka, this isn't you. You abandoned the dark side," she yelled trying to get the woman's attention, but who was she kidding. She wasn't going to hear her out… But she would listen to her grandpa.

Ami felt them coming. She felt all of them coming; her dad, uncle, and aunt. They were coming from the ruins. Ami ran into her grandpa who nearly stumbled from the force of her run.

"Grandpa," she said.

"Ami," everyone said to her.

"Where's your mother?" Han asked.

"Where's Mé?"

"Where's Ahsoka?" Anakin asked her trying to stop her trembling.

Ami took a deep breath and said. "It's Palpatine!"

Anakin picked Ami up in his arms and all the adults ran to where Sidious and Pesinoé had made a mess of the forest in their fight.

"That's Sidious?" Luke asked lighting his light saber.

"Long story," Anakin said putting Ami down starting to join the fight.

"No," Ami said. "He only wants me!"

"And that's not an option sweetheart," Han said raising his blaster holding her by the shoulder to keep her from going anywhere. She rolled her blue eyes.

"I know that, but Ahsoka-."

"Needs a little help over here," Ahsoka said glaring at Sidious who had her cornered and against a tree.

Anakin and Luke jumped into the fight without hesitation and Mara ran over to check on Mé.

"I tried to stop him mommy," the little girl muttered.

"I know you did baby," she said checking the cut on her head.

"Ami," Leia muttered from where she was.

"Leia," Han said starting to go to his wife but then looked at Ami.

Ami rolled her eyes. "Relax. I won't do anything dumb."

Han went to help his wife up who was trying to stand on a no doubt twisted ankle.

Meanwhile, fighting a much stronger Palpatine in a much younger body was proving to be difficult even for the 'chosen one'. It might have been because he was preoccupied with his lover who was obviously immersed heavily in the dark side.

"Let go of the dark side," Anakin said to her in his effort to take down Palpatine.

Ahsoka sighed. "Is it really so bad if I'm using to help?" she asked with a slight purr to her tone.

"Ahsoka," Anakin said in an exasperated tone. If the situation weren't so serious, he might admit he found this Ahsoka, heavily immersed in the dark side using all her seductive tricks incredibly… alluring would be the term.

"Listen love," Ahsoka said as Anakin tried to take her sword out the battle but only succeeded in almost getting his head chopped off if it weren't for Luke who took the battle away from the two quarrelling lovers.

"Desperate times cause for desperate actions and we're beyond desperate. Either way, is there really anything wrong with using the dark side if we're trying to achieve the same goal?" Ahsoka asked cocking her hip to the side as she rested her hand on it.

Anakin groaned. He really had no time for her games.

"We'll be talking about this later," he warned.

Ahsoka (who Anakin noted was acting more like Pesinoé and though he'd never admit it, he had to say he somewhat liked it) smiled and playfully licked her top lip before saying with her fingers crawling on his chest, "I look forward to it."

"Would you two stop playing around and help me?" Luke asked rolling his eyes at the way the two interacted. Really, they were acting like teenagers again.

But Ahsoka and Luke didn't remain in the fight for long. Palpatine knocked them out the fight and Anakin struggled to deflect the lightning he threw at him.

Ami, who was watching from the side, right where she promised her father she would stay, felt the darkness creep up in her again as she watch her grandfather slowly but surely push Palpatine back. This fight had aged Palpatine a little. Now he appeared to be around twenty or so. Ami looked over to her mother's fallen light saber and called it to her.

Slowly she stood up and made her way to the Sith lord. Ami stood near him, enough to kill him.

"I hate you," she said and then to everyone's shock she lit the light saber.

It was one thing to see his lover let the darkness consume her and hold a light saber threateningly in her hands (Anakin had seen it before and through carefully talking to her, he could talk her out of it), but to see his little eight year granddaughter light one staring in contempt with it was the most terrifying thing he had seen on his near sixty years.

"I hate you!" Ami yelled raising her weapon. It would only take one swipe of it to kill Palpatine right then and there.

"Good," Palpatine said to her. "Good. Your hate makes you powerful Ami, but I'm not the only one you hate. You hate your mother too don't you?"

"Even if I did," Ami muttered. "I hate you more."

"Are you sure? I embraced your gifts Ami. I wasn't the one who held you back. Do you know why they're holding you back?"

Ami lowered the sword.

"They hold you back because they fear what you'll become once you reach your true potential. You have the power to become the most powerful force user in the galaxy. Nations will bow at your feet, and warlords will shake in fear at your power. I have foreseen it," Palpatine said to her. "And your family knows that. You want more than what they're giving you."

"Don't listen to him Ami," Anakin said pushing the lightning back. "He's lying to you. We're not afraid of you. You mother loves you. We all do!"

"Then why won't they train me. Why won't they teach me what I want to learn?"

"I used to feel the same way Ami and you can't blame them. They don't understand your power and you feel isolated, but you can learn from my mistakes. You have something I didn't have in the jedi temple. You can make them understand you. You can talk to them without worrying about them persecuting you. They're your family. Your actual flesh and blood," Anakin said to her.

"Amidala," Ahsoka said as she put her lightsaber in the line of the lightning along with Anakin and helped him push it back.. "Your grandfather's right. You have something we didn't in the Jedi temple. I know I'm one to talk, but old habits die hard. I'm too far gone, but you don't have to suffer this curse. Once down this path you start…"

"Forever will it dominate you destiny," Leia said leaning on Han for support. "Ami, baby."

_Ahsoka, let go of the darkness._

"Ami," Luke said. "We're sorry we didn't understand how you feeling."

"We didn't mean it sweetheart," Han added.

"We promise," Mara said carrying a passed out Mé in her arms.

Ami sighed as she dropped her arm at her side looking down.

"They didn't mean it," she said. "They were only trying to help me. But how was cutting off my hand going to help me _Matthew_?"

"No," Palpatine yelled.

"I thought you were my friend," Ami said trying to keep herself from crying. "But you're the liar!"

"No!" Palpatine yelled and the lightning that was previously aimed at Anakin spread in the field shocking everyone in the vicinity, even Anakin who felt it through the ground.

He snatched Ami by the arm and ran through the forest while everyone was in a haze.

"Ami!" Leia yelled.

"Sith bastard," Ahsoka said lighting her light saber again. "You're not getting away from me again.

Anakin got up and followed her knowing that Ahsoka had a track record for doing irrational things when she was this immersed in the dark side (her initial turn was proof of that). In fact, she just had a habit of doing irrational things in general, light or dark (not that Anakin was one to talk as he was a lot more irrational).

Palpatine stopped when he got to the top of the large Yavin waterfall, one of the largest in the galaxy at half a kilometer high.

"Gotcha," Ahsoka said and cut off the arm still holding his light saber, preparing to take off his head. Palpatine but then he pulled one of the most cowardly moves Ahsoka had known him to pull. He dangled Ami over the side of the waterfall by her neck.

"It's either kill me, or save the girl Ahsoka. It's up to you," Palpatine said.

Ahsoka groaned as she held her lightsaber to his neck. As a Sith lady, the choice was easy. She would kill Palpatine at the cost of the girl's life, but it wasn't that simple when she was conscious of the light. The Jedi valued all life and if achieving their goal resulted in the unnecessary loss of life, the goal was abandoned.

"Ami, Ahsoka," Anakin yelled as he came up behind Ahsoka with his lightsaber at the ready before freezing when he saw Palpatine dangling Ami over the edge.

In any case, Anakin's voice made Ahsoka pulled her blade away from Palpatine's neck though it was still raised.

"Weak woman. Even as a cold all powerful Sith lady, you had a heart for one person. Anakin Skywalker," Palpatine snarled disdainfully.

"Ahsoka," Ami said and Palpatine started to loosen his grip.

Ahsoka groaned as she looked at the girl, eye meeting a pair of blue eyes just like the man she had gone to hell and back for. She then lowered her light saber and extinguished the green blade.

"Now let her go," Ahsoka said backing up into Anakin to give the Sith lord room.

Ahsoka discreetly handed Anakin her light saber and then squeezed it predicting the Sith Lord's next move.

_You sure about this?_ Anakin asked her.

_Positive, _she sent back.

"I knew it. So weak…" Palpatine asked and then looked at Ami. "Consider this your first lesson in the dark side."

Ami screamed as Palpatine dropped her.

But Ahsoka had predicted the move and jumped after her as soon as Palpatine dropped her. She grabbed the girl in mid-air and pulled her to her turning to take the impact of their inevitable fall.

As Palpatine summoned his lightsaber back to his hand, Anakin lit both blades in his hand. Blue and green struck red as Anakin furiously fought back the Sith Lord.

"So she pulled something you didn't count on again," Anakin pointed out. "You were counting on her to use her anger to kill you, but there's one thing that you never calculate in your predictions Sidious."

"And what's that?" he sneered.

"Love," Anakin said simply. "And that's a power you'll never be able to fully comprehend."

Palaptine could only do so much with one good arm and in his moment of frustration at Anakin's declaration, he made a fatal mistake, leaving his front open when Anakin stabbed him in the chest and then cut off his head for good measure.

"I really do hope you stay dead this time," Anakin said as her then went to the edge of the waterfall to see where Ahsoka and Ami had landed.

"Ahsoka, Ami," he yelled as he saw where they landed, Ahsoka having taken the brunt of the fall on her right side. He let out a string of obscenities in huttese, worse than anything had used in years. Carefully he began to climb down the side of the steep ledge a few feet away to get to them.

Ami opened her eyes, having closed them and buried her face in Ahsoka's chest when he the woman grabbed her. She sat up and looked around, seeing her grandfather coming down the high ledge using the force to enhance his descent. Palpatine's cold presence was gone and she guessed her grandfather had killed him. Then she noticed that Ahsoka wasn't moving beside her.

She got on her knees and shook the woman.

"Ahsoka," she whispered. She didn't answer and Ami shook her again. "Ahsoka!"

She leaned her head down hearing the faint but steady rhythm of her beating heart, but to her horror, she didn't feel the steady rise and fall of her chest to indicate breathing.

"Ahsoka," she yelled shaking harder. "Wake up!"

"Ami," Anakin said almost to where she was. "What's wrong?"

"Grandpa, Ahsoka's not breathing!" she yelled.

Anakin's heart stopped as he came to Ahsoka's side and raised her limp body in his arms.

"Come on Ahsoka," he said, the same fear and grief gripping him that had done the same when he woke up to find Padmé dead next to him.

"What's going on?" Han yelled from the top of the waterfall.

"Ahsoka wake up," Ami said putting her face in her chest. This couldn't happen again.

"What's wrong?" Leia asked riding on her brother's back.

"I think something's wrong with Ahsoka," Han said but he couldn't see clearly from the top of the waterfall. "Stang it," he said and started to climb down the steep ledge, considerably slower than Anakin had.

Anakin buried his face in the top of her head trying to hold back his own tears as Ami let hers fall freely laying against Ahsoka's chest.

"Force," he muttered. "I'm not doing this again. If she dies, I'm kriffing going with her."

A weak cough was his reply as Ahsoka lifted her head and tried to pull herself up

"You can be so dramatic sometimes Skyguy," she muttered.

"Ahsoka," he muttered looking into her lively blue eyes.

"Who else?" she asked trying to raise her right hand to run her hand through his hair but found that it remained limp at her side. "Damn. There goes another arm."

"Ahsoka," Ami said throwing her arms around the woman.

Ahsoka sighed. "Now I can imagine what Obi-wan must have gone through with Anakin. You should have been your grandfather's child Amidala. But this just proves the Skywalker gene doesn't weaken over the generations."

Anakin laughed and wrapped both of them in his arms. The sith lord dead, the prophecy fulfilled (for good they hoped), and certain tragedy averted.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Anakin hated med-bays and the only reason he was in one right then was because Ami, Mé, Ahsoka and Leia were there after suffering the brunt of the injury when they fought Palpatine. Ahsoka had stubbornly stayed awake for a while before the medical droid gave her a sedative to put her to sleep. After a fall like the one she had, she needed it. That was good though. It gave Anakin the chance to fix her messed up prosthetic arm. Ahsoka's arms were expensive to make and it was one of the few luxuries she had kept from her sith life. It really was a unique type of hand and a beautiful one. The problem was that they were just as delicate as a real arm and Anakin could count how many times he had fixed this particular arm. It was about time she replaced it. At least she wasn't replacing it as often as she claimed she used to. It amazed him how fickle she was when she was Pesinoé. She would rather toss out a malfunctioning hand and get a new one than fix the ones she had. The first time he suggested it after he moved onto the enchantress, it had been a foreign idea to her.

"Why bother fixing that thing? It's time for a new one anyway?" she said not surprising Anakin as he had felt her stirring before.

"You won't be able to do anything about it until we get back to the _Enchantress_ so we might as well fix it," Anakin said messing with one of the fingers. "Can you feel that?"

"Somewhat," Ahsoka said and then lifted her arms. "But this will work for now."

"Why don't you just go get a normal replacement arm?" Anakin asked her.

Ahsoka reached for his right arm with her own and said, "Why don't you get a normal new replacement for this ancient thing?"

Anakin laughed. "This is different. Your arms are too delicate and expensive."

"Not like I can't afford it," Ahsoka said referring to the millions of credits left in her accounts from when she was a Sith Lady.

"You never told me the story behind why you chose this material," Anakin said looking over the jewels on the arm.

Ahsoka frowned as she thought back on it. "Well, I had just become Darth Pesinoé and at first, Palpatine was insistent on giving me some cheap prosthetic with a glove to cover it, but I told him it was only a temporary fix, that a Mistress of Seduction needed something better than that. So I went to some engineers and got to doing a little research on it. I knew what I wanted from the beginning. Something like a trademark, that would make people sure of who I was if they didn't know on first glance. The jewels showed status and the pretense of being mysterious and alluring… Delicate on first glance, but enduring and strong."

She raised the hand and inspected it.

"So it was a representation of Darth Pesinoé?" Anakin asked and Ahsoka nodded. "Then why did you keep it?"

Ahsoka sighed as she put her arm down. "As a reminder of who I used to be and who I have the potential to become again. Part of me is always going to be Darth Pesinoé and no matter how hard I push her away, the circumstances to bring her back always come up again. Today proved that. This whole visit has proved that."

Anakin reached over and grabbed her real hand with his own before saying, "If anything, this visit proves that you have more control of that side of you than you give yourself credit for. To call on your darkness and then push it away for the good of someone else proves that."

"Is your arm better?" Ami asked appearing in the doorway.

Ahsoka was startled by her, even though she didn't show it.

"For now," Ahsoka said raising her hand to demonstrate, even though the feeling in it was limited.

Ami nodded and started to make her way out, but Ahsoka stopped her.

"Where are you going?" she asked.

Ami sighed and began to twirl a lock of her blonde hair through her fingers. "I talked to my grandma today," she admitted.

Anakin raised an eyebrow. It sounded odd, but he believed her. He had talked to Obi-wan from the grave, but he hadn't been aware that a person who wasn't force sensitive could pull it off.

"The force isn't that cruel," Ahsoka said reading his thoughts as she repeated what Padmé told her years before.

"What did she say?" Anakin asked.

"I need to talk to my mother," Ami grumbled in discontent.

"That's probably a good idea," Ahsoka agreed and Ami rolled her eyes.

"I don't have to like it," she said and started to walk away before stopping and turning to look at her grandpa. "And if you're wondering why she hasn't appeared to you yet, I think it's because she wanted you to let go… She wanted both of us to."

With that Ami turned on her heel and went to find her mother leaving two somewhat bemused Jedi in her wake.

"I sometimes wonder if that girl is eight or eighty…" Anakin muttered. "She acts her age most of the time, but sometimes she seems so coy and elusive like she knows something we don't."

"She can hear the whispers of the force more clearly than most people her age. That's why she's so hardheaded. She's been raised to listen to the force and that's what she does," Ahsoka pointed out. "Were you like that?"

"I raced pods even though my mother hated it, got married secretly even though it was forbidden by the order, didn't kill you like the Jedi wanted me to on Mustafar, dared the council to change the code or at least reinterpret it, saved you from the dark side when no one thought it could be done, and took you as a lover seven years later knowing my children wouldn't like the idea and that the rest of the galaxy would think I was had lost it if they found out," Anakin explained dryly. "So what do you think?"

Ahsoka hissed at his sarcasm but she got the point.

"So do you want to explain this about talking to Padmé to me?" Anakin asked when he figured Ahsoka got the point.

"I guess it's time," Ahsoka said leaning back as she began to explain.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

**AN:** A reviewer made me go look up the ritual with Palpatine returning and it made me realize a hole in this story. Oh well… It's done now. For now, he's gone for good and I won't write another story on where his spirit went. Let's just say the force called him back for good. This chapter was actually much longer but I cut it, much to my sister's dismay. So there's one more chapter. Ami talks to her mother and vacation's over for Anakin and Ahsoka.

Hope you enjoyed. Review Please!


	11. Part Eleven

**AN: **So I lied… Albeit unintentionally! The last part was longer than I thought and so I had to split it much to my dismay as I couldn't figure out where two thousand extra words came from! It was all so perfect when I finished it! So I'm posting this and the last chapter together as I really would like to be done with this story and take a break next week before tackling my other projects.

Read, enjoy, and review!

xxxxxxxxxxx

**Part Eleven**

Meanwhile, Leia was trying to convince the medical droid that she didn't need to stay overnight. Her ankle would be fine, but it was insisting that she stay for observation. She sighed, giving up on arguing with the droid. It left the room satisfied that she wouldn't leave. Leia looked at the door and then turned to grab the remote to the holo-vision before jumping when she saw Ami sitting in a chair with her chin resting in her hands leaning on her elbows, innocent yet weary blue eyes staring at her.

Leia felt a wave of sadness as she looked at Ami. She had always known Ami was a powerful force user, but she hadn't wanted her finely attuned force skills to mature her and wear on her like they had on her father. It was why she sometimes regretted naming her daughter after two powerful and well-known women in the galaxy.

Ami continued to watch her mother for a while before saying, "Why do you care?"

"What do you mean why do I care?"

Ami started to roll her eyes, but stopped halfway through the motion and lowered her eyes back to normal eye level as she remembered her grandmother's words to her

"Why do you pretend to care about me?" she asked.

Leia blinked in confusion. "What are you talking about? What do you mean pretend? How could I pretend to care about you? Of course I care about you. You're my daughter. I've loved and cared about you since the day you were born."

Ami looked at the ground. "I don't believe you."

"What do you mean you don't believe me?" Leia asked as she swung her legs over the bed to fully face Ami forgetting about her swollen ankle.

"I just find it hard to believe," she said simply.

When Ami spoke like that, it was just a reminder that Ami was so finely attuned to the force that sometimes she spoke like she was three times her age. Mentally and force-wise, she was a prodigy, but she had the heart of a child trying to act like she had the hardened heart of an adult who had seen more. Deep down, she was as sensitive as any other child her age and Leia had learned that more than ever in the last few days.

"I guess you wouldn't want to since you hate me," Leia said dryly deciding she didn't want to deal with her daughter's unpredictable attitude. If she wanted to act that way, it was fine with her. It was harsh, but what else could she do.

Ami continued to look at her though, despite Leia's statement, and finally said, "I don't hate you."

"Then why did you say it? Why do you act like I'm the most disgusting thing you've seen in your life when I'm around?" Leia demanded.

Ami was as calm as ever and Leia had to wonder what was going through her head. She wasn't expressive enough for an eight-year-old. She shouldn't have to feel like she had to guard herself.

"Because I was trying to give you a reason not to want me," Ami admitted.

Leia reeled back in shock at Ami's blunt response. Give her a reason not to want her… That made no sense. Why would a child want to give their parent a reason not to want them?

"But why wouldn't I want you," Leia said ignoring the pain in her ankle as she went to sit in a chair next to Ami who recoiled from Leia's touch. "Don't do this to me Ami. Why wouldn't I want you?"

"Because you don't," Ami said and finally the hard exterior cracked as she let out a sob and buried her face in her hands. "You knew I was dark when I was born and you didn't want me because of it."

"What gave you that idea honey?" Leia asked turning Ami's tear streaked face to her. "Tell me."

"Because you gave me away. You didn't want me," she said slapping Leia's hand away.

"I didn't give you away."

"Don't lie!" Ami yelled standing up. "I hate it when you lie. You did give me away. I remember it."

"What are you talking about Ami?" Leia asked standing over her and trying not to let her temper get the better of her.

"You left me with grandma and didn't even look back," Ami said stomping her foot. "You left and the only reason you came back to get me was because she died."

It then clicked why Ami was throwing all her tantrums, why she shunned all Leia's efforts to spend time with her, and why she seemed to gravitate to another woman after only knowing her for a few days. Ami thought Leia was only trying to save face and wanted Leia to show what Ami thought was her true colors.

"I didn't… Ami," Leia finally decided dragging the girl to the bed. Leia got on it first and then pulled Ami up on lap and into her arms. To Leia's surprise, she didn't resist, but she wasn't exactly holding on either.

"I didn't know you remembered that," she muttered as she went back to the day she entrusted her newborn with her mother.

"I did," she said in a sour tone.

Leia sighed trying to figure out how to explain it all, before deciding that the truth wasn't as horrible as Ami thought.

"Ami, I had no choice but to leave you with your grandmother. You don't know how difficult and troublesome it was back then. And although I always wanted you, and don't ever believe for a minute that I didn't, my pregnancy and your arrival weren't exactly convenient. It was during a time where the entire galaxy was threatening to turn in on itself. As the empress I couldn't just take time off to spend a year with my new baby. And unfortunately, there was only so far the sympathy of the galaxy would extend to my predicament," Leia said reminiscing back on the times right after the war where everything was threatening to fall apart. To her surprise, the people had turned not to the senate (mainly because they were all impatient with the democratic process after years of war), but to their young jedi empress to come up with a solution and fast.

"I did what was best at the time. It would have been selfish of me to keep you on Coruscant. If anything, I never wanted you to feel neglected living with only handmaidens as company in a big empty palace and so your grandmother and grandpa offered to take you to Naboo so that I could work and you would be safe and loved," Leia explained as she remembered her grief and self-hatred at not having the time to take care of her baby.

"But you didn't come get me when the twins got here," Ami muttered.

"The twins?"

"I stayed with grandma until she died," Ami said leaning her head on her mother's chest. "The twins were almost two. Why didn't you come get me sooner?"

Leia shrugged. She really didn't have an answer for that. Well, she did, but she didn't know if Ami wanted to hear it.

"I didn't want you to hate me I guess."

"For what?"

"For uprooting you like that. Even at that age grandma and grandpa used to talk about how smart you were and how observant you were at a year old and grandpa would talk about how in tune with the force you were. You understood and felt things most children didn't understand and by that time you had really bonded with your grandmother. So I would come visit you and enjoy my short time there and leave. It just seemed better that way. I didn't know you felt like I didn't want you, because I did. I always did," Leia added. "You don't know how hard it was for me to leave you time and time again."

"But you never looked back."

"I was trying not to get attached. I thought it would only make the arrangement worse."

For a moment Ami didn't say anything. As steady as her breath was and calm as her presence had become, Leia was under the impression that she had fallen asleep until she spoke again.

"I thought something was wrong with me," Ami admitted. "I thought it was the darkness."

"People aren't born dark Ami. Circumstances make a person that way."

"Like Ahsoka?" Ami asked carefully.

Leia paused for a moment, a flicker a jealousy popping up in her at the woman her daughter was obviously smitten with.

"I guess you could say that."

"Her and grandpa understand the darkness. They don't hold me back because of it," Ami said but without the bitter edge she had said it in before.

"Well I'll help you from now on. No more holding you back. I'll start your training as soon as we get back to Coruscant, completely this time," Leia promised.

"But you won't ever understand it completely…" Ami said softly and began to bite her lip, a habit she had no doubt gotten from living with her grandmother.

"Ami?" Leia asked sensing the girl's apprehension about something. "Ami tell me."

"I want to go with Ahsoka and grandpa," she blurted out.

Leia didn't know what to say. One moment Ami was mad because she thought she was unwanted and now she wanted to leave.

"But why?"

"I talked to grandma today," Ami said leaning her head on Leia's chest again.

Leia looked down at Ami. "You did?"

"She said you need to stop being mad at Ahsoka and that she can help me if you let her. You don't have to. But I'd like to go with them. I want her and grandpa to train me. The darkness goes away when I'm with them," Ami said closing her eyes. "And maybe she can help make it go away forever…"

Leia didn't respond to Ami plea. Instead she leaned back and closed her eyes. She was only just getting her daughter back after fighting with her for five years and now Ami wanted her to let her go again.

xxxxxxxxxxx

"No more talking," Luke said stepping into the classroom full students ready to start their training for that day. They started to stand up but Luke gestured for them to stay seated. "We won't be doing any physical training today. Today we're going to be learning some Jedi history back from the days of the Clone Wars."

There were a bunch of groans, more so from the older students.

"But we know most of that stuff Master Skywalker," a girl said bored. "Why do we have to go over it again?"

"Because you haven't learned it like you're about to learn it. You get to talk to someone who's lived it," Luke explained.

"You mean Master Skywalker… Your father I mean," the girl said again.

"Nope… Although I imagine he's going to accompany her," Luke said dryly. It was certainly bound to be interesting. "They're a little late though."

"It's your dad's fault," Ahsoka said coming into the room looking a little flushed.

"I don't remember hearing many protest," Anakin said coming behind her with a smirk on his face.

"Shut up Skyguy," Ahsoka muttered looking down at the floor as Luke raised his eyebrows at them.

"Do I want to know?" he asked.

"I doubt it," Ahsoka said before Anakin could try to embarrass her.

"You battled in the Clone Wars?" one of the boys asked and then turned to the blonde haired girl that had spoken earlier. "You said-."

The girl elbowed him in the gut to stop them.

"What did she say?" Ahsoka asked curiously. She was still trying to figure out how she got roped into doing this. She was going to say no, but Anakin had answered for her when Luke asked before she could say so. Initially Ahsoka was a little upset, Anakin held firm on the grounds that in the time they had been here, she had been uncomfortable on the grounds that she felt unworthy to be in the place where Luke was trying to rebuild what she had helped destroy. She could look at it as being part of the rebuilding to redeem herself. Ahsoka had been forced to concede. He got her there…

"Nothing Master…" the girl trailed off not sure how to address Ahsoka.

"I'm not a-."

"Master Tano," Anakin said before she could finish.

"But I'm not a Master," Ahsoka argued.

"If you aren't a master now, you'll never be one," Luke pointed out.

"Just call me Ahsoka," she said and turned back to the boy in the back. "Now what did she say?"

"I didn't start it I swear!" the accused girl said instead.

"Start what?" Luke asked confused.

It was one of the younger ones that replied.

"There have been rumors going all around the Praxeum on who it was that Master Skywalker brought back with him and she said the woman was some young force sensitive torgruta he met on his travels and trained, before she wooed him with her young feminine wiles and they fell in love," she said innocently.

The older girl in back blushed.

"Well you got part of the story right, but there was a long thirty year gap between the wooing part and the time I met and trained her," Anakin pointed out.

"Really," the girl said recovering from her embarrassment. They had never heard this story from Master Skywalker before. "Tell us."

"Well I was thirteen when I was assigned to him," Ahsoka began.

"Almost fourteen," Anakin corrected.

"Who's telling the story Skyguy?" Ahsoka asked plopping on the floor in front of the students.

The students sat with rapt attention and Ahsoka told her side of the story with Anakin giving bit and pieces in between.

Luke who was simply supposed to observe found himself coming up with questions he wanted to ask later. He had never heard his father and Ahsoka's adventures when they were just padawan and master during the Clone Wars. His father had never been in the mood to talk about it. So he sat with as much fascination as the padawans.

"Having a good time I see," Leia said slipping in next to Luke.

"What are you doing here? I thought you were helping Ami with her light saber technique," Luke said as Ahsoka decided to give a demonstration of how they took down the shield for the separatist Army.

"He would have been lost without me," Ahsoka said wistfully.

"I would have deactivated it faster if it weren't for you being reckless and activating that droid minefield," Anakin shot back.

"Which gets us to the part where I saved your life," Ahsoka said smugly as she gathered the students around her for a demonstration.

"I could have handled it…"

Luke and Leia watched in amusement at the two.

"They really do make a great couple," Leia admitted.

Luke blinked and turned to his sister.

"Excuse me?"

"I said-."

"I know what you said. I just can't believe you said it," Luke said shaking his head.

"I talked to Ami and she wants me to forgive and forget. So that's what I'm going to do… try to anyway."

"I thought you had forgiven her," Luke asked.

"I did… But I blamed her for mom's death. It's not her fault and even if it was, she regrets that it happened," Leia said as they observed Ahsoka and Anakin who the students were watching in obvious amusement as they argued over how they rescued the baby huttlet or Stinky as Ahsoka had called him.

"It was a trap, but he wouldn't listen to me," said Ahsoka.

"On the contrary," Anakin defended. "I knew it was trap. I just decided to spring it."

"Who's reckless now?" Ahsoka asked looking at the students who were laughing at the playful banter.

"So back to the part where you saved the huttlet," a boy said impatiently.

"It was a little too easy to save him," Ahsoka explained. "And it turns out it was a plot to ruin the negotiations between the Jedi and Jabba the Hutt."

"But we didn't find that out until later, from Senator Amidala," Anakin added

"Who's that?" a girl asked.

"Naboo's senator at the time. You all know her. Padmé. She used to come here with me and Ami. Luke and Leia's mother," Anakin explained. "She was my secret wife back then."

"Cool!"

"She was your secret wife? That's so romantic," a girl gushed.

"She really does complete him," Leia added to Luke.

Luke nodded in agreement. "But in a different way than mom did. Mom made him remember things, learn from them, and accept them so they wouldn't bother him anymore. Ahsoka just makes him forget the pain and the acceptance and learned lessons come later as he dwells on it."

"Same thing if you think about it," Leia replied with a shrug, "I didn't know Ahsoka was so good with children though."

"You're not the only one," Luke said and then noticed his sister's contemplative expression. "What's going on?"

"Just thinking about something Ami asked me."

Luke watched his father and Ahsoka in silence for a while before saying, "She wants Ahsoka to train her doesn't she?"

"How did you know?"

"Saw it coming," Luke said and paused before asking, "Are you going to let her?"

"That's why I'm observing," was the simple response.

By the time Luke finally ended the class, it wasn't just his class who was participating but all the students in the school, including Tionne and Kram, along with Mara and Han were crammed into the sparring room listening to Ahsoka and Anakin talk about the Clone Wars with Artoo giving visual aid on occasion.

As everyone filled out-Mé, Ami, Jacen, Jaina, and Anakin all crowded around Artoo as they berated the little droid for not telling them he knew all this stuff and demanded more holovids from him- Leia went over to where Ahsoka was standing in the corner with her father watching the group file out.

Ahsoka noticed her approach and Anakin followed her eyes to where his daughter (who if everyone thought looked like Padmé when she was younger was the very image of her in her thirties now) was walking toward them.

Leia shuffled awkwardly from one foot to the other when she got to them.

"You wanted something princess," Anakin asked her.

Leia smiled at the old nickname. Her father had never broken out of the habit of calling her that. He couldn't even do it after she became the empress. She was just his little girl to him.

"Yes… I was just… I…"

_She's just like you, _Ahsoka sent to Anakin

_I know. Too much pride for her own good, _Anakin admitted.

"I don't have all day," Ahsoka said finally growing impatient.

Leia glared at her. "I was hoping to speak to Ahsoka. Not Darth Pesinoé."

_More like me than I thought, _Anakin sent to a bashful Ahsoka.

"Sorry," Ahsoka muttered fiddling with the tip of one of her lekku.

Leia finally composed herself, looked Ahsoka in the eye and said, "Have you ever thought about taking another student?"

Ahsoka stared in surprise for a moment. Was Leia asking her what she thought she was? Finally, she cocked her hip out to the side and raised her eyebrow.

"Depends. Have anyone in mind?" she asked.

"Just a little headstrong reckless girl who inherited everything about her from her grandpa," Leia said slyly.

Ahsoka shrugged. "I don't know. I don't plan on sticking around for much longer here. Another couple of days maybe. She'd have to come with me."

"I think she's a little restless anyway, wants to get out… If I let her go with you would you take her on and take care of her for me?" Leia asked suddenly looking anywhere but the two people in front of her.

Ahsoka felt Leia's reluctance and started to ask, "If you don't want to why are you-?"

"No," Leia said wiping her wet eyes. "I told her I'd think about it. But I wanted to ask you about it first. She really wants to go with you two. And it would be selfish of me to make her stay when she needs more than I can give her right now. She needs one on one time and I can't dedicate the time to do it at the moment."

"Leia," Anakin said pulling Leia to him.

"It would be your right to be selfish about it," Ahsoka finally said. "She's your daughter."

In that moment Leia knew that if she did put Ami in Ahsoka's care, Ahsoka wouldn't try to take her place as her mother. She'd just be another mother figure to Ami. Ahsoka wasn't going to try to keep her away.

"I'm still thinking about it…" Leia said pulling away from her father. "It seems like I just got her back. But I promised... When are you leaving?"

"A week," Ahsoka replied.

Leia nodded. "A week," she said and started to turn away. That didn't give her a lot of time. But it was enough.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

**AN: **Nothing to say. Just review before you move on to the next chapter.

Hope you enjoyed. Review Please!


	12. Part Twelve

**AN:** Nothing to say except this is the last part…

xxxxxxxxxx

**Part Twelve**

And sure enough, a week later, the entire Skywalker family was gathered around Ahsoka and Anakin, the two about to make their way back to the enchantress and the unknown regions.

"Bye grandpa," Anakin Solo said to his grandpa. "You're coming back right?"

"The entire fleet couldn't stop me," Anakin assured.

"I'm in charge of the fleet," Han said. "So you won't have to worry about that."

"Bye grandpa," Mé said from where she was peeking around her mother.

"Keep working on those knife throwing skills," Anakin said with a wink.

Mé blushed.

"Shy as your dad huh?" Ahsoka asked.

"Get out here you," Mara said pushing her daughter out from behind her.

"It the ones like that who are scary when you piss 'em off," Ahsoka assured.

"Not to mention she inherited a temper from both sides of the family," Anakin joked.

"I'm standing right here," both Mara and Mé said.

Everyone laughed and it was then Luke said, "Where's Leia?"

Everyone turned to look at Han who shrugged. "She was making a fuss about something and waiting for something to arrive from Coruscant this morning."

"What did she send for?" Mara asked.

Han shrugged.

"You alright there Amidala?" Ahsoka asked her.

The girl who was staring off into space for a moment looked at Ahsoka and nodded going up to her and giving her a hug.

"No more trying to run away alright? And no more being angry with your mother either," Ahsoka added.

"I'm not. She's finishing my lightsaber training when we get back to the palace," Ami said with a grin.

"No attacking children you don't like with it," Anakin warned picking her up as she wrapped her arms around his neck.

Ami looked at him with a smile. "Wouldn't dream of it grandpa. I'm just going to scare them off…"

"If I find out you did that, that's three hours of meditation for you sweetheart," Han warned.

"Yes daddy," Ami said though she was still smiling meaning she was probably going to be doing those three hours of meditation in the near future. She turned back to Anakin and said, "Don't stay gone so long this time."

"We won't," Ahsoka promised. "I promise I'll bring him back sooner."

"You better. I won't have you disappearing for five years with my daughter in tow. Any longer than a year and I'm scourging the galaxy for you," Leia declared making her way over to them with a tightly packed leather back pack and a small red wooden chest under one of her arms.

"Where have you been?" Mara asked.

"I had to pack Ami's stuff," Leia replied.

Ami let go of her grandpa's neck and jumped out his arms to stand before her mother.

"Mom?" she asked as Leia handed her the backpack.

"You said you wanted Ahsoka to train you and she can't do that if you're with me most of the year," Leia said as Ami took the backpack.

"For real?" Ami asked to be sure.

Leia nodded as Ami put the backpack on her back. She then leapt at her mother and hugged her surprising everyone in the group. Then she further surprised them by saying, "I love you mama."

"What's so shocking?" Anakin asked confused.

"She's never told Leia that before," Luke said.

"Never?" Anakin asked and Luke nodded.

"Wait a minute. I've got something for you," Leia said handing Ami the chest.

"What's in it?" Ami asked cautiously.

"Open it," Jaina demanded standing next to her sister.

Ami lifted the top and gasped. "Wow! A light saber."

"It's just for you to practice with. That thing's older than I am," Leia chided.

"Is that…?" Ahsoka asked and Leia nodded. "You kept it after all this time?"

"Dad's old lightsaber was supposed to go with it," Leia said. "But we don't know what happened to it after Bespin."

"Oh that old thing," Ahsoka said with a smirk. "I kept it after Luke dropped it. It's locked up tight on the ship. Never leave it anywhere."

"It's only for practice," Leia warned Ami again. "You'll have to build your own for regular use."

"I got it," Ami said closing the chest and rolling her eyes. "You didn't have to say it twice."

"Time to go," Anakin said. "We have to get going if we want to rendezvous with the _Enchantress_ on time."

"Then you three better get going," Luke agreed.

The three started to head up the ramp.

"Hold on squirt. You're not going anywhere without a proper goodbye to your old man," Han said to Ami.

Ami laughed and hugged her dad.

"When you get back, you can work on the _Falcon_ with me," Han said.

"No," Ami corrected. "When I get back, I'm going to _finish _working on the _Falcon_. No one should have to work on a ship as much as you do on the _Falcon_ dad."

"Sometimes you're too smart for your own good princess. Just like your mother," Han muttered and pushed her along. "Now get on."

Ami ran to the top of the ramp where Ahsoka and Anakin were waiting for her.

"Seriously," Leia yelled. "I want Ami back for her birthday party!"

"Don't worry," Ahsoka said tangling her hand in Anakin's. "I think Anakin would rather have the wedding here than in the unknown regions. So we'll probably be back before then."

Anakin looked at Ahsoka in surprise stuttering as he was unable to find words to reply to her declaration. Ahsoka led him into the cockpit and Ami started to follow when Artoo rushed up the ramp saying something to Ami in binary.

"You want to come with me?" Ami asked.

"Now Artoo," Threepio said from his spot next to Jacen and Jaina. "You can't just run off and decide who you want to go with. Rightfully you belong to Master Luke and-."

"It's tradition that Artoo bonds with the most troublesome of the current generation," Luke joked cutting Threepio off. "It was me before. I guess he's decided it's you now."

Artoo made a comment in the affirmative and then made a dry response.

"Yeah… Sorry about that. But you were going to tell," Ami said.

Artoo made an affronted noise and said something else.

"True," Ami muttered. "Alright. No more pushing you down in smuggling compartments. I promise," she said as the ramp closed and she headed to take a seat behind her grandpa and Ahsoka.

"Strap in Amidala," Ahsoka said as Anakin got ready to take off.

"What's Artoo doing here?" Anakin asked.

"For the adventure of it all," Ami said and Anakin took off into space.

xxxxxxxxxxxxx

"So did you mean what you said back there?" Anakin asked later back on the _Enchantress_ in bed, Ami sleeping between them until they could fix up a room for her.

"What did I say?" Ahsoka asked absently as she tried to get down the plans for Ami's room.

Anakin was amazed at how fast she had taken to becoming a bit of a mother figure to Ami. For the last few hours he watched as they talked, Ami ordered dresses and outfits-since there wasn't much room in her bag except for the essentials she had needed-and, to Anakin's amazement, Ahsoka had tamed Ami's thick blonde wavy locks into to braids on either side of Ami's head before pinning them around her head. She fit into the role of motherhood quite nicely.

But she was now ignoring Anakin and since Ami was sleep, he didn't like it. So he used the force and snatched the plans out of her hands setting them next to him away from Ahsoka.

"Hey!" she said reaching over to grab them, but Anakin kept them out her reach.

He grinned. "You can work on them later," he said laughing at her frustration.

She pouted and crossed her arms, an annoyed look plastered across her face.

"Now back to my question," Anakin said.

"What question?" Ahsoka said blinking. Anakin glared at her and she blinked. "Oh yeah. Sorry," she added blushing. "I was just preoccupied."

"Yeah," Anakin said glancing at the plans. "Trying to spoil my granddaughter. What kind of master are you giving her all these things when she's not supposed to care about material things?"

"You're one to preach about the Jedi Code," Ahsoka pointed out. "Besides, it's only the things she really needs. Clothing,"

"That she's going to grow out of in a few months," Anakin pointed out.

"Games," Ahsoka continued.

"That she'll find boring once she's gone on a few adventures with her master."

"And some other stuff…"

"Like she really _needs_ a four poster canopy bed Snips," Anakin said pointedly.

Ahsoka sank down in the bed. "So I indulged her a little. Give me a break. I have to do something with all my wealth… other than maintaining the _Enchantress_ and replacing my arm."

Anakin laughed deciding he might only induce her rage by teasing her about how suited she was in a more domestic role.

"But for real," Ahsoka said seriously. "What did I say?"

"You'll marry me."

Ahsoka paused and for a moment Anakin thought she was going to deny she ever said it before she said, "That's what I said… as long as none of your grandchildren ever call me grandma. I'm too young for that."

Ahsoka thought he would laugh, but his expression remained serious.

"What changed your mind?"

Ahsoka snorted. "You daughter is one fickle young woman. We talked a little while after she asked me to take on Ami."

"And…?"

Ahsoka rolled her eyes. "And she said that she won't have her daughter observing this and growing up thinking that it's fine to decide to spend your life with someone without it being legalized on paper with witnesses. She says that Ami's rebellious enough as it is… That and I think it's time we make it official anyway. I've been avoiding it for long enough. And I realize it's partially some remnant of Pesinoé in me that was making me say no to begin with…"

"Oh. You mean your feminist dominatrix attitude," Anakin translated dryly. In that respect, Padmé and Ahsoka were very different. Ahsoka had no problem not being married thinking it made her more independent and stronger in society (It also probably had something to do with her Jedi training). Padmé would have never been with Anakin for five years and not married yet. In fact, she would have demanded it _because_ she was a strong and independent woman and therefore should be married because such a loose relationship degraded her in the eyes of the people.

"Whatever…" Ahsoka muttered. "You know, we never did tell them about the invaders…"

Anakin shrugged. "Let them enjoy their peace for a little while longer. We can hold them off for another couple of years. Besides, it'll be good training for Ami."

"Cool! I get to fight invaders?" the suddenly awake girl asked startling both Anakin and Ahsoka.

"How long have you been up?" Anakin asked.

"Since you two said you're going to get married so I won't be rebellious when I get older," Ami said with a mischievous twinkle in her eyes and then became serious again. "So invaders are coming to invade the galaxy?"

Ahsoka nodded.

"Finally," Ami muttered. "The galaxy was starting to become boring. You heard that Artoo."

The robot beeped an affirmative.

"You really have to stop masking your presence like that," Anakin said dryly. "It's going to get you in trouble one day."

"Again you mean," Ahsoka pointed out.

"Yes Master," Ami said pulling the covers over her head.

"Don't call me that," Ahsoka said. "It was always a little too formal for me."

"Then what does she call you?" Anakin asked.

"What she's been calling me," Ahsoka said lying down. "By my name."

Both Anakin and Ami scowled at that and then finally Ami said.

"I'll just call you Ma," she decided.

Ahsoka sat up again seeming shocked, but Anakin seemed to agree with Ami.

"But I'm not your mother," she said.

"I know that, which is why I'm not calling you mother or mom or mama. You'll be ma. You can say it's short for grandma or something," Ami said pulling the cover back over her head. "Night ma. Night grandpa."

Ahsoka stared at where Ami was lying for a moment and seeing that his lover was still a little stunned, Anakin smiled.

"You okay?" he asked.

"Just a little… Surprised."

Anakin rolled his eyes. "Stop acting like you're not glad. You've been wanting someone to call you that for a while now."

Ahsoka started to deny it, but saw that it would be no use since Anakin seemed pretty sure about it. "How'd you know that?"

"I didn't know it until you started to like Ami, but after I thought about it, you've been feeling that way for a while," Anakin said lying down. "Leia probably knows too and she doesn't mind. All you had to do was say so you know," he added.

"And you would have been fine with it?" Ahsoka asked.

"It'll give us something to do for the next fifty years or so," Anakin muttered tiredly.

Ahsoka only smiled and lied down and then added, "So if I wanted to go to Dathomir and adopt one of the orphans my ladies take in, you wouldn't mind?"

A pause.

"I meant one and since Leia has seen fit to give you Ami, that means you got your wish. Don't push it," Anakin said seriously.

"Come on. It would be like giving Ami another sibling," Ahsoka pleaded.

"Ahsoka," Anakin said a little irritated.

"What?"

"One Skywalker child is troublesome enough without adding an orphan bound to have problems into the mix. I'd like not to be _completely_ gray for a while. No," Anakin said closing his eyes.

Ahsoka didn't reply and Anakin thought she had left it alone until she said, "Even if they were force sensitive?"

"No," Anakin said firmly leaving no room for argument, at least not that night. "Goodnight snips."

"Goodnight Skyguy," Ahsoka said sighing, the argument lost for then… She'd bring it up again the next day. She had finally given in to the marriage idea after much debate and so she was more than ready to nag him about this…

xxxxxxxxxxxx

**AN: **You know I originally didn't intend to end it this way. Leia and Ami were supposed to make up and then Anakin and Ahsoka left. It was simple as that, but my muses took it in another direction…

When I wrote this part or this story, I think I was looking at an episode of MTV's "Teen Mom" and one couple had given their baby up for adoption and got to see her after a year. It was so touching to see how mother and daughter interacted and there while there was obviously an unspoken love between the adoptive mother and the baby she was raising as her own, it didn't interfere with the love that was obvious between the biological mother and the baby. It was still there and so I was like wow… There's a lot of controversy behind it, but it really is an ultimate show of a mother's love when she can realize her child needs more than she can provide (whether material, mentally, emotionally etc…) and decides to place them in the care of someone who she can trust to do it for her.

This wasn't exactly like that, but I tried to make it obvious that Ami's a special case and needs more in another area than Leia can give her and that's not a slight on her (or any mother who makes that choice in real life), but I heard somewhere that even though a woman births a child, it doesn't mean that child was _for_ her.

Okay, I'm a sucker for romanticism and poetic things, so others may have a different opinion and I'm not ready to start a debate, but that's my take on it.

That's the end of my story and it'll be a while before I touch this universe again. So until such a time when I decide to do so, all you Ansoka (Anakin/Ahsoka) fans stay tuned for **Sanctioned by an Angel** coming to a computer near you on **December 27, 2010!**

Hope you enjoyed! Review Please!


End file.
